


Connections to Nowhere

by xLion_Heartx



Series: Science Experiments [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie), Debating as to whether Civil War will happen in this AU, Do I kill characters?, Gen, Might but without the Bucky drama, Post-Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie), Pre-Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie), Thats a good question, characters added as I go
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-09
Updated: 2018-10-16
Packaged: 2019-05-04 14:14:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 28,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14594769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xLion_Heartx/pseuds/xLion_Heartx
Summary: Darcy doesn't know what happened or how she got where she was all those months ago.She remembers Thor but the people connected to him are frazzled in her brain.Her mind and memories fluctuate from being fine to going missing and what doesn't help is the torture these HYDRA freaks call training. It's not her fault Nowhere won't let her in, and it's also not her fault the little yellow gem doesn't want to leave her locket when the scientists want it back.At least she has Pietro and Wanda, the only other people still stable in her mind.





	1. She's Been Here

**Author's Note:**

> So, this idea came about when I made an OC a while back, eventually, she evolved and then I fell into reading and watching things with Darcy as a main character and decided: why not give my girl Darcy some abilities, I miss her in the MCU.
> 
> A bit of backstory to this AU is that Steve managed to find and bring Bucky back to Stark Tower so he's pretty much okay aside from the nightmares and PTSD, but he's an Avenger now and sticks by Steve a lot.
> 
> I hope you enjoy this random fic idea!

Darcy doesn't really recall how she ended up with Strucker. The last thing she can really remember is Thor, he just has that lasting effect on people she guesses; anything around him is muffled and foggy in her mind, people she feels like she should know she doesn't. She's not sure why she was the target of kidnapping and not the cloudy figure that she always sees clinging to the God - she just gets the feeling whoever that is/was would've been more effective to kidnap. As far as Darcy's aware, no one has been looking for her and, by that extent, people probably haven’t even noticed she’s been gone; if they slipped from her mind it's not unlikely that she'd slip theirs too.

Though, that might just be the training. All of Strucker's little experiments go through it but her sessions always seem worse; the researchers can technically go harder on her though because the world won't let her die yet. Her room is separated from Pietro's and Wanda's - the only other currently living test subjects - because her powers came a different way than theirs and, for a while, Strucker didn't want them to mingle in case their aura's negated each of their powers in some way.

They all met during a training session, one of the only ones Darcyvividly remembers being lighter on her (she imagines it was probably a precaution from the researchers to not scare the other two at what could happen to them should their powers get any stronger), the two of them were rather closed off to her during the breaks and she didn't really mind, sitting with her spirits was sometimes soothing after summoning and manipulating them for hours on end. Wanda was the one to breach conversation first, probably reading her mind in a water break and only seeing the things she'd witnessed while in captivity; Darcy supposes Wanda felt sympathy for her lack of memories and familiar faces. The twins are at least a year older than her, and with Pietro being twelve minutes older than Wanda, he was the oldest and the most protective; Darcy remembers when she'd gone through a solo training session and found the speedster taking a break in the tiny common room they all share, she remembers the horror on his face when she'd nearly passed out on the floor and he caught her, letting her sleep against him as she ever so slowly healed.

It has taken Darcy a while to fully get a grip on her new powers. For a while, she was only ever able to summon butterflies and small animals until a brutal training left her mind to wander deeper into Nowhere, finding larger animals and people willing to help her (they'd first called it serve but Darcy wasn’t particularly fond of the term). From her new lineup of summons, Catarina is her favourite to fight with, she's a large tiger that is probably as protective as Pietro sometimes; after a fight, or if Darcy just needs to avoid a panic attack, she'll sometimes call upon her favourite flock of butterflies or a baby animal that lost it's life too early (though, Nowhere doesn't take souls early). When she wants to talk but is locked in her room, she'll call Mollie or Ashley, two mothers who died during a plane crash, and talk to them because they like to listen and offer some good advice when Darcy needs it. Especially regarding her memories.

_They might come back. They might not. If they dont then maybe they weren’t all that special, maybe the only memories you need are the ones you make now._

That helps a lot.

Then there's the stone that's practically attached itself to her. She doesn't know what it is other than something Strucker wants, it's small and glows a soft gold, though she doesn't see the glow much because it's hidden away in a small copper locket that is permanently around her neck. Stucker can't touch the thing because it nearly burned him alive the last time he tried, and Darcy's only way of moving it is with her wisps but whenever she tries to hand it over it just hides back in her locket like it's magnetised there. The necklace is generally kept underneath whatever shirt she's wearing, it keeps her collar warm and oftentimes keeps her focused because of her connection to it; the little rock that gave her powers and saved her from dying like the rest of the test subjects for this stone.

Sometimes for fun, she and Wanda will sit in the common room and mimic each other's hand movements, Darcy's are often softer because she hates forcefully dragging her spirits out, so when Wanda does it, it allows her to make small flicks of energy that tickle beneath Darcy's chin and catch Pietro before he speeds into a stool. When Darcy copies Wanda's gestures, she manages to drag forward the more violent of her spirits, they still listen to her because she's the one that got them out, but they're the ones that are the best to fight with even if they were bad guys when they were alive.

Strucker's men had to make a bigger space in the base because Pietro was getting too antsy with the small spaces he kept trashing by running around in them. The first time the three of them had gone outside in a while was when they were led to Pietro's new running ground in a walled off courtyard equal distances from their cells; it’s counted as mostly Pietro's space, but when it’s warm the girls go out there to sit and watch him; Darcy still thinks it’s a way for Strucker to gain more of their trust, allowing them a little more freedom made it look like the damage he’s been doing to them isn’t as extensive, no matter what the scars say, no matter what their heads say.

But that courtyard was the reason Pietro had started testing his strength while running, sometimes stealing Wanda or Darcy from their seated positions on the ground to run a few laps before putting them down again; that was how Darcy had first experienced travelling at Pietro speed. She has to admit, even now it’s a little strange, at first it had made her nauseous - luckily she didn’t throw up like Wanda did the first time - but at the moment Pietro doesn’t slow the world down for them like he describes happens to him, they’re just in one place then in another with flashes of blue and tossed around stomachs. Darcy thinks - and somewhat hopes - that as Pietro develops his powers, his ability to see the world slow around him will extend to whoever he touches. But that’s a hope for the future.

One of the only times Darcy was ever grateful for her powers was one evening, when it was presumably a Sokovian holiday, the three of them were sat outside watching far away fireworks from the city. Wanda, instead of speaking, had projected memories into Darcy's head, her's and Pietro's memories of them sitting with their mother on this holiday. Darcy had closed her eyes then, slowing her breathing and reaching into Nowhere to find her, the Maximoff's mother; her hands had moved by themselves and the twins had watched her, the signature golden wisps swirling between her fingers before she opened her eyes and brought the women out of Nowhere, just for this holiday.

It was the first time Darcy had ever seen the two of them openly sob.

For a while, they've all had a bit of a routine outside of training and curfew hours, they usually do personal training together after Darcy has recovered a bit from her actual training and won't pass out. As well as routine, they all have their nervous ticks and bad habits, Wanda has a tendency to crush things with her powers, like discarded crates or the training blocks she's provided, Pietro has a terrible habit of making sure he's the centre of attention and annoyance in order to spare the girls from other ways of getting hurt, and Darcy has managed to always subconsciously latch onto either of the twins' wrists at any point, her brain checking their pulses and just keeping hold, her way of making sure the people she's been bonding with are actually real and not just her golden spirits... it's a way for her to know that she's not completely lost her mind.

* * *

Darcy thinks its a Thursday when one of Strucker's men wakes her up by throwing clothes at her rather than the usual rags or training gear. She wonders what's happening before her brain fully wakes up and hears a ruckus a good distance from the base; is someone attacking?

She gets dressed quickly, the subdued gold track pants form-fitting while the black hoodie hiding her shape. She laces up the combat boots and goes to her door, pushing it open with the tips of her fingers and feeling the wind rush past her as Pietro lifts her off the ground and places her back down in one of the main research labs. He and Wanda are dressed up too, the three of them huddle as they listen to Strucker yelling at his men.

"Who gave the order to attack?" The man demands, gaze only flicking to their trio once. Are they transferring to another facility? Are they testing their powers in a proper battle? What is going on?!

There's a long pause as Darcy's heart almost stops. The Soldier only has to say the word 'Avengers' for her brain to latch onto the only lasting person in her old memories: Thor. He was, hopefully still is, an Avenger, she knows that for some reason, she’s sure they’re a group but is almost positive she hadn't met any of them besides Thor.

Wanda links her pinkie with Darcy's, clearly, the girl sensing something in her brain but not wanting to pry. She glances back at Wanda and offers a small smile, squeezing their linked fingers as her focus returns to the present. The Doctor wants to send the three of them into the field for once but Strucker's convinced they're not ready, Darcy can practically hear Pietro's smirk, the speedster turning around and looking at her and Wanda.

"If it's the Avengers that means Tony Stark must be here,"he murmurs, out of the earshot of the Doctor and Strucker. Darcy remembers when the twins first mentioned Stark's name, she felt a twinge of memories but nothing personal, she listened to their story about him and her feelings match theirs. Stark isn’t a good man, not to them. Wanda's hand twitches and Darcy can see the red flecks of energy sprout from her hands.

"They'll be coming in here won't they?" Darcy says, looking at the twins, "they want the information this place has. If Stark's as smart as you say he is, he'll be the one coming in... so Wanda should stay and wait for him here, Pietro and I can go out and stall the others."

Wanda looks hesitant to let the two of them out of her sights with the attack going on, but her want to hurt Stark seems to be much greater and she nods after a moment. The three of them leave the room quietly, Wanda jogging down a hallway as Pietro sweeps Darcy off her feet for the second time that day and dashes out into the snow-covered forest.

Darcy feels her feet hit the ground and rubs her nose as the cold starts to seep into her system. Pietro pulls her hood over her head to help keep her face hidden and mumbles a quick, "give your best," before he speeds through the trees. She shakes out her hands and exhales slowly, jumping on the spot a couple times before focussing, twisting her hands and calling Catarina out of Nowhere. The tiger growls, pawing the ground and looks over to Darcy, she pulls her hood further over her eyes and mutter a quick, "just hold the Avengers," before allowing the spirit to run off. She sprints in a different direction, hoping to see any of the attackers and pull out extra hits while Catarina takes on the stronger fighters.

She catches a glimpse of Pietro take down a man in blue while sensing Catarina go against the big green guy that destroyed one of the turrets. Darcy darts behind a tree and laces her fingers together to call for another friend, she forms a golden orb as she's searching Nowhere for someone willing to help. A twig snap forces a squeal from her throat as she throws the orb at the perpetrator, a hand holding her hood and the other outstretched in hopes she might be able to do something like that again and she spins to see a man with a metal arm and dark eyes. He had grunted when the orb hit him but other than being a few paces back from the twig he'd stepped on, he seems fine; he holds a gun and she stares wide-eyed while also trying to hide her face. Her hand glows golden again, the spirits of Nowhere having felt what she did without a full summon and hoping to help her do it again.

"Reporting a second enhanced. Female. Some kind of energy manipulation maybe," the man mutters, but she can still hear him and takes a step back.

She doesn’t hear what anybody responds with but calls back Catarina after that and just as the man in front of her aimed to shoot, or at least put up a fight, she feels her feet leave the ground as Pietro takes her back into the base, they make it to an empty room, the common room, and he places her on the ground gently, keeping an arm around her waist to make sure she's steady.

"That was close," he says, Darcy grabbing his wrist and feeling his faster-than-normal heartbeat before nodding and exhaling slowly.

There's a ruckus a few rooms away, the pair only guessing that some of the Avengers have made it inside which means Wanda is doing her dirty work. Now they're all exposed, but they are unidentifiable at the moment. Pietro looks at her and cocks his head in the direction he assumes Wanda is heading in, Darcy nods and pushes hair from her face as he speeds away, her left-hand goes to rub the right side of her neck, her fingers trailing along the copper chain of her necklace. She leaves the common room, her boots hitting the stone of the halls quietly and her knees bend to let her crouch in case someone is around.

She makes it to the lab she was in before going into the forest, peaking through the doorway to see most of the men inside down for the count; Darcy nearly panics, but sucks in a quiet breath and makes a small golden ball in her hands, rolling it into the room as it takes the form of a small spider, a sentry of sorts. She shifts again, back against the wall so her peripherals face either direction of the hallway; she hears movement to her left but feels her sentry's calm aura, slipping into the Avenger-free room as Tony Stark - or better yet, Ironman - leaves the base, the sceptre Strucker had been experimenting on in his grasp.

Darcy sighs in relief, feet leaving beneath her and stretching out her knees so she can sit on the floor. What is happening? Her head hurts and it feels like memories are trying to force their way back to the forefront of her mind but can’t get past her own mental barrier. The spider comes scuttling back and she lifts it onto her hand, smiling softly at it before it disappears in a puff of golden smoke; Pietro and Wanda slip into the room after that, both dropping to sit either side of her as her fingers lace around their wrists.

They’re okay. All of them are okay. But what happens now?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally Posted: 09/05/18
> 
> Edited: 14/04/19
> 
> Changes: Added a minor paragraph about Pietro’s speed from Darcy’s POV, fixed general spelling and tense mistakes.


	2. Bad Feeling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy and the twins don't trust Ultron, Wanda comes up with a plan and luckily, a fragment from Darcy's memory makes it all the easier.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the lovely comments on the first chapter, I'm so glad everyone liked it.

Darcy breathes in the cold night air as she walks the Sokovian streets, her fingers tangle into her hair as she braids either side in a stressful way of distracting herself from everything going on. She walks beside Pietro, Wanda slightly in front of them, and Darcy only really manages to keep up because of Pietro's hand on the small of her back. Wanda's leading them somewhere, apparently she has a good idea of what's happening because of the things she saw in Stark's head; they don't want to be suspicious, but Darcy doesn't like this situation and she can tell Pietro's a little wary of it too, knowing some of the things his sister is capable of and willing to do.

As they make it to the church that stands in the middle of the city, Darcy stops. Wanda continues to walk inside but it feels as if Darcy can't breathe, she’s stuck in a vortex, a little pocket of the world where she can only feel hers and the twins' souls and the souls of those dying around the universe right at that moment; her lungs burn, it feels like she's having a heart attack and a panic attack all at the same time, like her stone is making her freak out in some way, and she _just can't breathe_.

She hasn't realised she's stepped back towards the road until Pietro's wrist is under her fingers, feeling his pulse as the rest of the world filters back into her senses and she sticks in a strong but shaky breath. He slowly lowers her onto the cool cobblestone path, pulse still beating against her fingers as her eyes and ears finally focus in on what is happening around her properly; she can feel every living, breathing person again and it heavily outweighs the subtle throb still present in her heart at the feeling of all those things just dying.

"Darcy?" Pietro calls quietly, hoping not to draw any attention to what just happened, it doesn’t even seem like Wanda noticed - which kind of hurt if Darcy's honest, but it looks like something has preoccupied Wanda's mind - "what was that? Are you okay?" His words sound a little far away but Darcy takes another deep breath and just focuses on his heartbeat for a moment.

"I-I don't know," she answers honestly, breath shaky "I just couldn't breathe for a second... I just felt all the death and _fear_..." she had to admit that feeling so many scared creatures was a new sensation. She didn’t like it.

Pietro hums and looks at her in concern. They hear Wanda call them after a moment asking if everything was okay as the guy - no, no, _android_ her mind screams - stands next to her, watching them like a predator watches its prey and it was freaking her out. Pietro's arm leaves her hand and she made a reflex whimpering noise until he helps her off the floor and allows her to tangle her arms around one of his own.

"We are all good," He says, looking at the android guy sceptically before Darcy watches him have a mental conversation with Wanda, "Darcy just did not feel too good."

"Yeah," Darcy finds herself saying, a little off from her usually kind and dorky disposition, but overall a good facade, "I'm okay now, Pietro's just being protective."

Wanda smiles softly and hugs her when they make it over. The three of them follow the android - Ultron, Wanda whispers to her - down below the church and Darcy only manages to keep her focus on something other than the anxiety she gets being anywhere near Ultron by focussing on the calming mental waves Wanda is sending her way.

"I've come to save the world." Even the way he speaks just feels like big red flags, "we'll move out right away. This," he gestures to millions of smaller versions of himself, "is a start, but there's something we need to begin the real work."

The three of them are rendered speechless, Wanda takes a hesitant step forward and points at all of them, "these are all..."

"Me," Ultron finishes with a wave of arrogance, "I have what the Avengers never will. Harmony. They're discordant, disconnected. Stark has already got them turning on each other. And when you get inside the rest of their heads..." He reaches a hand out to Wanda and Darcy can see the effort it takes for her to not flinch or reel back in disgust.

"Everyone's plan is not to kill them," Pietro mutters out of instinct. Darcy can tell that as much as Ultron makes him uncomfortable, the Avengers, though most prominently Stark, still put him on edge further.

"And make them martyrs?" Ultron asks and Darcy winces at the fist he makes, arm still dangerously close to Wanda's head. "You need patience. Need to see the big picture."

Darcy pipes up then, seeing Wanda slowly losing her nerve and taking little steps away from Ultron while Pietro takes a small step forward to touch Wanda's back and let her know they're still with her.

"So... What exactly do you want us for? You knew we were coming so why show us this and not tell us what you want us for?" She speaks with a little more fire than usual but Darcy can chock that up to being so anxious.

Ultron hums and looks and the three of them. He takes a stride away from Wanda and towards his mini-mes, "I wondered, why you two were the only ones to survive Strucker's first experiments... Looking at your records, at what you’ve been through, I understand why. You’re survivors, incredible ones who deserve all the power they’ve been granted. But then, you," he stares at her and Darcy gulps, "are an anomaly to me. Strucker never had any files containing details about you other than your abilities and what was recorded during your time with them. It also seems that any and all information pertaining to your name has been wiped from the face of the planet. It's as if you don't exist at all."

Her face scrunches up in confusion, so she not only has zero memories from before Strucker and neither did the world? How does HYDRA do this kind of thing? Ultron makes a noise that sounds like something a person would do when they're smirking and Darcy has to grab Pietro's jacket to make sure he doesn't charge at him.

"But back to your question, we can all _hurt_ them but only you and Wanda can _tear them apart_ from the inside."

* * *

Whatever Ultron has in mind requires a change of clothes and, apparently, multiple changes in scenery if their robotic leader is being honest with them. The three of them sit in the jet Ultron has somehow acquired, frankly, Darcy doesn’t want to know where the AI got it nor what happened to the people that had probably been watching it before. 

She crosses her ankles in her seat, combat boots squeaking against each other while she runs her hands along the black skinny jeans she's wearing now. It’s supposed to be cold in this first place they're ambushing, so Darcy has ended up wearing a big red sweater that allows her to cover her hands with the sleeves and a beanie of matching colour. Even now, the hat just feels right to her, she likes wearing it.

Wanda stands by the front of the ship, looking curiously at the controls and the autopilot its been set to while Pietro sits opposite her, slouching in his seat and legs stretching out so far they nudge at Darcy’s boots. It’s mostly silent, the only noises being the plane engine and Ultron’s tapping on the walls and console.

“I believe it would be appropriate for you to understand your roles before we land,” the pseudo-leader states - Darcy is almost tempted to make a no duh kind of noise but manages to hold it in. “We may try to reorder the way we ambush to see what works best, but for the moment I need Wanda going in first… to give the scientists a little scare.”

Pietro sits up slightly, eyes flashing to Wanda’s before he turns his attention back to Ultron, “we are not going to kill the workers, are we?”

Ultron waves his hand, dismissing Pietro’s genuine worry, “no,  _no_ , there’s a time slot for you to get everyone out, since you are the fast one, but there may be casualties should some be left behind. I can’t truly help what my legion does.”

Darcy looks to Pietro and they share a similar look of suspicious disbelief. Pietro stands, stretching his legs as best he can. Wanda sends tendrils of red out the minute the lab is in sight and Pietro is speeding in there the minute the jet touches down, the legion of Ultron’s flies past them all just as Pietro gets back and passes a thumbs up to them - he got everyone out.

Inside isn’t much different to what they’d seen at HYDRA, maybe cleaner, sure, but anything’s cleaner than their old home. It’s almost entirely white, maybe off-white? Darcy isn’t sure but it’s some shade between white and grey. The vibranium they’re looking for isn’t here, but Ultron allows she and Pietro a little wander around before he wants to move to the next location. Wanda isn’t as curious about what the building holds as the others.

Pietro speed reads through a couple of files left on a desk while Darcy skims over a couple open webpages on a nearby computer. It looks like this lab is one of Strucker’s backups..? At least from the HYDRA logos Pietro points out on the physical files. The webpages don’t show off much, mostly a couple tabs of World War II History on a website she presumes is very HYDRA-friendly, and another is a map, pinpointing someplace in… New Mexico. _Huh_.

It takes her a couple seconds to figure it out, but she manages to print the webpage, New Mexico could just be the place she met Thor for the first time, but part of her thinks there’s something else to it. A printer lights up across the room and Pietro snatches the sheet before she can, folding it as small as it will go and nodding at the basic legion bot coming in to drag them back outside. Pietro slips the paper into her back pocket as they leave the building.

* * *

A couple dozen other - far less interesting - labs later and she’s sitting on a countertop, half surrounded by broken glass and unknown scientific mixtures that have spilled out across the surfaces of this room. 

She'd taken her hair from their braids the minute she walked in with the ghost of one of the scientists' dead wives, thick waves falling against her shoulders as half of the employees passed out at the sight of a golden ghost and a young woman shielded by other golden wisps. Wanda had sent in a wave of fear after Darcy's distraction and Pietro had filtered all of the people to the nearby village before Ultron and his copies destroyed the place looking for vibranium.

There’s a simple lull in the action, Wanda having wandered outside with a new book in her hand - probably to read during the quiet times between lab ambushes.

"So what's the plan?" She asks, looking up from her hands as Pietro pushes himself off the door frame he'd been leaning against.

"Wanda wants us to split up," he states, frown showing that he didn't like the idea any more than she did.

"What!? She wants us to leave her with _him_?"

Pietro shrugs helplessly, walking fully over to her and leaning against his elbows that were now on the table beside her, "she wants you as far away from him as possible after your reaction when we met him. Because of this... she wants us to help out on _Stark's_ side which is why she is having me go with you because she does not like this plan any more than us. She wants to keep an eye on Ultron from his side and we can watch from the side who will eventually fight him."

Darcy's frown grows and she shares an uncertain but resigning look with Pietro. She jumps off the counter and sighs heavily as he throws an arm around her shoulders and they exit the lab room, "let's get this show on the road then."

~ x ~

Darcy holds her breath for a second as she grabs a bundle of wires and just rips them from the power box in front of her. She stays kneeling in front of it as the sparks burn spots into her hands and the shock makes her arms recoil slightly, pulling her sleeves to hide them as she sits back to look at Ultron to her left. He nods at her in the emergency lights before disappearing up the nearby stairs, she stands slowly, listening out for any tell-tale signs of movement before perching at the bottom of the stairs.

She hops up the steps when the glass breaks, stepping awkwardly over Ulysses Klaue, the man who they’ve come all the way out to see and the one who is groaning on the floor, to get over to the twins.

"Let's talk business," Ultron says, face inches from Klaue's.

The slightly frazzled man and his thug lead them to a small stash, when it's opened it reveals nothing but toxic waste but Darcy knows better than to believe a man of Klaue's reputation would keep his stash out in the open. Lo and behold a switch and voila, a stash of one of the best metals in the world. Vibranium.

"Upon this rock, I will build my church." If Ultron could fully smile Darcy’s sure he would be doing that now, taking the cylinder of vibranium and holding it to his eyes in admiration. He tosses it to Pietro after a moment, the boy testing the cylinder's weight in his hands before looking at Darcy and Wanda.

"You know," Klaue starts, "it came at great personal cost. It's worth billions."

Ultron chuckles and Darcy finds that she still finds the noise disturbing. She watches him as he stares just above their heads, she thinks he’s doing something via the internet before. Ulysses is now worth billions, apparently, a strange phrase about keeping people rich slipping out before Klaue stared at him, saying one name that set everything off.

" _Stark_. Tony Stark used to say that... to me. You're one of his."

Ultron protests wildly, grabbing Klaue as his eyes seemingly glow redder and his voice becomes venomously heated. Klaue's thug attempts to grab his gun but Wanda's hands twist to stop him, suddenly Klaue is without an arm and Darcy covers her mouth to suppress a gasp, Pietro takes a controlled step backwards and Wand watches with wide-eyes as Ultron's voice becomes soft and insincere apologies flow from his voice box.

"Don't compare me with Stark!" A jolt forward and Klaue is now at the bottom of another staircase, "it's a thing with me. Stark is... he's a _sickness_!

"Ahh Junior," there's the sound of thrusters and Darcy turns to see Iron Man land. Captain America (she thinks) on his right and Thor... no that can't be right. She never saw Thor at the base so why would he be here now? Surely this is her sick brain conjuring up some hallucination, it's done that before. But the way he's staring at her and the twins, face twisting in confusion as his eyes study her more times than them, that gives her some hope.

Suddenly there are blasts of energy and she and Pietro are sprinting down each of the walkways, looking for an opening to get out of the way or get hit, whichever comes first. She throws an orb behind her, it forming into about three Viking warriors that charge into the fray before she unceremoniously collides with someone. That someone grabs her, not too tightly, around the neck and holds her there, she breathes heavily, recognising the metal arm from the man at the base and watches the fight continue as the man shoots at whoever is coming.

She sees the tell-tale silver streak of Pietro run down multiple walkways, knocking Captain America down with a swift punch before he's all of a sudden tossed into a pile of crates by a familiar hammer.

"Pietro!" She calls, panic coursing through her enough to stun the man holding her with a slightly enhanced elbow to the ribs before she's throwing herself off the side of the walkway and running over to her surrogate brother who'd been shoved down by Cap's shield. She places a hand on Pietro's shoulder and he smiles at her, sitting up with a groan before the metal-armed man drops down from the walkway.

Darcy panics, letting out a rogue yelp before she sees Thor's hammer flying in their direction again. She honestly has no idea what she's thinking but her hand shoots up and grabs the thing anyway... surprisingly it's pretty light, it almost morphs to fit perfectly in her grip and a wave of energy purses through her. Pietro stares at her with a shocked smile while the metal man's brow furrows.

"Myeu-myeuh! You _are_ real!" She cheers, so close to just hugging the thing before looking around and seeing all those who haven’t been affected by Wanda (she’s gone now, who knows where) - that being a grand total of three people - staring at her and the hammer she grips in her hands while half sitting on her speedster brother.

"What the shit?" The older of the three men mutters, looking down from the walkway above while the red-haired lady next to him seems dazed. Cap has appeared next to the man with the metal arm and the pair of them look at each other before looking back at her.

"Uh, yeah, sorry Tony we got a situation. No backup's available," Cap says, holding his ear and clearly talking into some sort of communication device like they were back at the base.

There's a thud just in front of them and Darcy turns her head from the two soldiers to spot Thor - he's actually there! - standing a few feet from them and staring at her, his eyebrows furrowing as he scans over her; she thinks he's trying to figure out if it's really her. She bites her lip and grins at him with a small wave, holding up his beloved hammer.

"I caught Myeu-myeuh."

He looks like he nearly chokes on the air, "Darcy?" The others around look between the two of them and Darcy slowly gets to her feet, offering her free hand to Pietro to pull him to his feet too. "I thought it was but a mind game... but you're here... How?"

"Been asking the same question for months don't worry about it," she waves Myeu-myeuh around dismissively before tossing it back over to Thor; she hopes they can have a more private reunion a little later, "what's important is we're still here because we don't trust Ultron and as difficult as it's going to be to work with people we don't really know, we can't be with that guy."

"And what about his sister?" The redhead above them asks, still a little shaken but out of her daze as much as Thor.

"My sister is none of your concern," Pietro growls, Darcy looks back at him with a soft, pleading look, and he huffs before folding his arms.

It takes a second before Thor's tight but soft smile breaks through to everyone and they start leaving the half destroyed ship. Thor waits behind everyone, falling into step next to her with the metal-armed man marching just in front of them; he's watching them, Darcy can see that much even though he's damn good at hiding it, but he doesn't seem too off-put like the redhead and archer guy who meet up with them halfway out, Darcy can feel a strong sense of understanding and empathy from the guy and she gets the feeling Pietro can sense it too since he's started walking a little ahead to be a somewhat next to the guy. Pietro's childlike curiosity sometimes made people uncomfortable - it did with a lot of the lab scientists - despite his bold bravado, he's always a bit of a nerd, wanting to learn new things when he felt safe to do so; which is probably why Darcy thinks she catches a fond smile tugging at metal-arm's lips as Pietro, almost shyly, asks about what his arm can do (not where it came from or how he lost his original in the first place. They know when to steer away from topics like that).

The jet they come to looks oddly familiar, but then again most of the Avengers did, it was probably just something she'd seen so much of that not all of its image could be removed from her brain - plus it looks like a more advanced version of the plane they’d been using. Stark and Banner are already inside, Banner exhaustedly resting back against a small table situated in the middle of the space, Stark sitting sideways in one of the pilot chairs, head raising as their small group enters. Darcy sees a small flare of anger and sympathy flash through his eyes and on instinct she grabs Pietro's wrist, leading him to one side of the plane to ' _let the_ _adults talk_ ' as she hears the archer mutter; she realises she really needs to learn everyone's names. But first comes sleep, as much as she wants to avoid it Darcy knows she can either willingly sleep now or pass out in about an hour and she always feels nauseous when she wakes up from passing out; luckily Pietro had his sleep day just after one of the later lab raids so he’ll be awake when she inevitably is too. She’ll be okay.

She pulls her beanie off and in one swift motion, Pietro is resting his back against one of the chairs in the plane and crossing his legs; Darcy's head curls into one of his knees as she lays down, involuntarily yawning, she can see the Avengers watching them from their peripherals, metal-arm shifting over to seat himself on the floor just in front of them like a guard dog. It's then that Darcy realises that he must be an old HYDRA experiment too, cast out or saved and she understands why he's somewhat comfortable around them now that they don't want to kill him - he understands them, probably the only one that does at the moment.

It's this thought that lulls her to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally Posted:19/05/18
> 
> Edited:26/04/19
> 
> Changes: General tense and spelling mistakes, Minor detail changes, Extra lab infiltration section + added plot element


	3. Dogs and Dreams

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nightmares are common but that doesn’t make them any easier to deal with.  
> Kind of like Pietro’s crippling fear of dogs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Much shorter chapter than normal I know. Sorry about that but this was as much as I could muster at the moment while I’m trapped in the English Heatwave that’s melting me - my brain really doesn’t want to cooperate with me but I will try and get another update out by next week.

_Her cheek stung as the man in front of her slapped her awake. Her brain felt like mush and she couldn’t form coherent thoughts._

_”Name. Say it.” The man said forcefully. She blinked harshly and breathed out in a gasp._

_“Darcy. Darcy Lewis,” she spoke without really thinking about it and the name she said didn't seem to connect with anything except blonde hair, lightning, and stars._

_”Good, we didn’t fry her too much. Do it.” The man spoke again, seemingly speaking to someone she couldn’t see nor hear - though the seeing part might’ve been because she couldn’t seem to will her head up to stare away from her bound wrists and ankles._

_She didn’t feel in control of herself, like the conscious part of herself she was currently viewing the world through was locked away behind glass watching her body work in ways she didn’t think it would. There was shuffling and clinking of metal against chain, her hair was pulled to yank her head back and bare her neck._

_She could see the person she guessed the man holding her hair had been talking to now. They were wrapped up like whatever they were holding was radioactive; and they were only holding a copper necklace, though there was a weird golden glow to it._

_She was screaming before she even realised they’d clasped in onto her, she felt like she was burning up and like that locket was carving a hole into her skin. The man had let go of her head so it had lolled forward but didn’t muffle her cries. A small golden butterfly appeared in her peripherals before she choked on her screams and her world turned dark._

_She’d died, she knew she had because even the people in front of her body had said so; “this one died as well. And I thought someone with files like hers would be worth my time.” She was looking from the outside again._

_The small butterfly still fluttered around her, the necklace’s small glow intensified before her current impossible consciousnesses was dragged back to her body._

* * *

Darcy gasps violently, her arms jerk forward and multiple yells surround her, all of it reminding her of her first days at the lab. Someone pins her arms to the wall behind her and she kicks out to get them away from her before Pietro yells at her in Russian from across the room they’re in, he’s telling her to calm down but he’s somewhere she’s not and isolation from each other never leads to good things. She can’t even see him her eyes don’t want to focus.

Her kicks are subdued pretty easily by whoever is pinning her arms, they straddle her and their grip on her wrists loosen slightly but they don’t let her go telling her to calm down in soft English. Someone else seems to pick up that she understands Russian from Pietro and begins to say things in that language, subsiding his friend’s comforts. Since he’s about as close as the other guy, he speaks much quieter than Pietro; he’s telling her to breathe and to focus but her panicked breaths remind her too much of her first encounter with Ultron.

She’s not sure how long the three of them are in those positions or how long it takes her to control herself and come back to the world, but she finally manages to blink away her panicked tears and make eye contact with the men holding her down and talking to her. Cap - or Steve as Stark calls him - is the one keeping her in place, worried eyes watching her as his metal armed friend - Bucky, who has had more than one encounter with her - slowly stops talking and leans back, letting out a relieved sigh.

”What the hell was that?” Stark’s voice breaks through the dwindling comforts Steve and Bucky say every so often. He’s holding up Banner and Darcy can see a small bruise forming on his collar... did she do that?

She doesn’t realise she’s tried to curl in on herself again until Bucky glares at the older (kind of) man, “watch it, Stark, it wasn’t her fault.” Steve offers her a reassuring nod and lowers her wrists from the wall but still holds them.

Stark splutters for a moment, prepared to say more but Pietro growls from his side of the ship, held loosely back by Widow who seems to be hissing Russian words in his ear.

”Great, we got two more people who can have conversations I can’t understand,” Archer says from the front of the jet, clearly trying to ease any tension in the room.

Darcy takes one final deep breath, exhaling slowly and shakily as Steve gets off of her and lets go of her wrists, he and Bucky move away from her slightly, standing and giving her space to carefully get to her feet. She hadn't seen him before, but Thor comes up in front of her, his eyes filled with worry she hasn't seen too much of. Screwing the thought of wanting a more private reunion, Darcy wraps her arm around his torso and tucks her head under his chin; he reacts immediately, circling one of his arms around her waist while the other finds the back of her neck, thumb rubbing the base of her skull comfortingly as he rests his head on top of hers.

She knows everyone's watching but can she really care when the only thing she's remembered for months is in front of her. _Holding her_. She seems to have cried out all her fears during her panic with Steve and Bucky, but the moment in of it self and the way she clings to him tells him that she would probably cry more if she could and she feels him kiss her hairline before gently releasing her. She offers him a broken smile.

Pietro finally makes it over to her, giving her another prolonged squeeze before leaning against the wall just next to Thor and allowing her to rest against his front with a sigh, intertwining one pair of hands while her other finds his wrist; she takes her last deep breath before she’s completely calm, focusing on his pulse.

"Am I- Can I- Did- Point Break do you _know_ her?" Stark splutters again, Darcy can somewhat find solace in the fact that she confuses him so much. She can’t deny how fun it is to see him so confused.

”Of course! I never did explain how Jane and I came to meet,” Thor says it like it’s the most obvious things in the world, the name he mentions sends a full throb through her head but she manages to push it away. “This is Darcy, she was Jane’s… something called an _intern_ \- Political Science if I remember correctly.”

”I was an intern?” She asks without meaning to. Thor’s eyebrows furrow and his lips form a frown, she feels bad about her lack of complete memory, but he doesn’t push her, the others seem shocked though Bucky and Steve exchange a look she can’t quite decipher.

Thor manages to pull his sunny mood back enough to continue the story, ”Jane had accidentally been researching the science behind the portals and gateways between the nine realms. When I was sent to Earth to learn what it meant to be worthy of my hammer and my title, Jane, Darcy and their mentor Eric - you remember him - had all come because the Bifrost was giving off the energy Jane had been looking for.”

This is where parts of Darcy’s memory actually starts, “I don’t exactly know much in terms of the people I found him with, but I think when he came down we hit him with a car.”

Thor chuckles like it was the funniest memory he’s ever had, the others stare between the two, faces showing their shock and bemusement of their mighty god of a friend getting taken down by something like an SUV.

”Oh that is not all friends,” Thor chuckles for a moment longer before folding his arms and almost looking proud of what Darcy did, “I was rather dazed after the initial hit, Darcy, Jane and Eric had come out to check on me and I assume I was ‘freaking them out’ because Darcy took me out with- what was it?” He looks over to her and she actually genuinely giggles at the whole ordeal.

”A taser.”

”Point Break got downed by a _taser_?!” Stark exclaims, flabbergasted.

”Why on earth did you have a taser?” ... Clint? Asks with a small smirk. She can feel Pietro hiding an amused snort in her hair.

She shrugs but smiles lightly at everyone laughing at their powerful friend being taken down by a girl half his size and a taser. Steve is clearly laughing, as hard as he tries to hide it behind coughing into his hand, Bucky is next to him, staring at anything besides Thor and her and trying so hard to keep his smile subdued to his usual stoic expression. Widow - Natasha? - allows herself a small smile similarly to Banner while Clint openly laughs and Stark keeps looking between Thor and her.

“Well what a beautiful story,” Clint teases, smiling at her before looking back out the front window, “about as beautiful as our safe house incoming.”

Everyone pauses, the lighthearted moment dying a little as they remember why they’re flying all the way out here anyway. Darcy - and she knows Pietro is the same - can’t help but feel slightly guilty for allowing Wanda to get them all into the tabloids’ bad books.

”This is... impressive,” Steve says, stepping out of the jet first and looking at the quiet farmland before them. The jet disappears via cloaking before Clint joins the rest of them, heading towards the house overlooking the land.

“Dad!” The squeaky call of children reverberates through Darcy’s ears as Clint opens the gate leading into the main area of the farm.

A young boy and girl come sprinting out of the front door of the house, a heavily pregnant woman slowly following. Everyone stops as Clint crouches, catching his daughter and standing with her in his arms as his son comes to cling to his side. Once again, Stark seems to be left rather dumbfounded and Darcy can almost see his brain imploding as everything he’s ever thought about his friends is crushed in two solid moments.

The sentimental reunion is ruined for Darcy and Pietro when a bark echoes through the air. She feels Pietro’s intake of breath, sees his left arm move to clutch the right side of his torso as he takes two large steps back towards the jet. Darcy can see that his eyes don’t seem to be focussing, clouded over by memories much like hers must have been when she woke up from her nightmare. She tries not to draw attention to it, ignoring Clint’s call of ‘ _Lucky_ ’ as the retriever goes bounding towards him; Pietro hasn’t completely sped away yet which is good because this area is unfamiliar and he’d get lost and more panicked. She gently grabs his right hand, if she jostles him too much or catches his other hand he might freak out, and closes the gate behind her so that if the dog came over it wouldn’t be able to get to him.

”Pietro,” she says quietly, sparing a quick glance back at the group to make sure they’re all preoccupied with Clint and his family. “I need you to come back to me, okay? You know, how I do when you ask me to.” She gives his hand a soft squeeze until he blinks roughly and exhales a breath he’s been holding, “there you go.”

”Hey, you guys alright?” Darcy turns to see Clint standing on the other side of the gate and watching them, “I got Laura - my wife - to take the others in, they didn’t notice don’t worry about it. What happened?” She can kind of understand where his patience comes from.

Darcy looks back to Pietro who is running his hands and through his hair and clearly trying to ignore the phantom pain cropping back up.

”It- It’s your,” she leans closer, afraid that even saying the word might send her brother back into his head, “dog.”

Clint makes a sound of understand holding up a hand before running to his door and poking his head inside, he exchanges some words with his wife and Darcy sees her nod before Clint comes running back to them.

“Okay, Laura’s going to keep Lucky locked in the back room until Pietro’s a little less freaked out by her. You guys can come into the living room, he won’t have to see her until he wants to. Don’t worry about it.”

Darcy sighs in relief, thanking him softly and turning to take Pietro’s hand and tug him towards the cosy-looking house.

”You’re safe. I’ve got you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally Posted:04/07/18
> 
> Edited: 26/04/19
> 
> Changes: Minor detail changes, General spelling and tense mistakes


	4. Safe House

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When is a safe house a safe house and not just a place full of roommates?  
> A.k.a - this is my excuse to write a bunch of domestic stuff before shit hits the fan.

Nobody asks any questions when Clint leads Pietro and Darcy into his home, she isn't sure if he notices it or not but they practically melt when they're in the living room. There's a seat in the window that they take up, curling against each wall with their feet touching, it's just so warm and welcoming and that kind of atmosphere is so foreign to them (Pietro especially) that she was worried they would just become puddles of traumatised, confused, lost mutants.

"Sorry for - uh - barging in," Steve apologises, rubbing that back of his neck as he looks between Laura and the kids.

"Yeah, we would have called ahead, but we were busy having no idea you existed," Stark adds, whipping his head around to look pointedly at Clint who rests against the wall closest to Darcy.

Clint snorts, explaining that a guy (probably the head of SHIELD or something) set up for his family to be kept out of files and such, a pretty good way to keep them out off the enemy radar. She watches him go over to his wife as the other scatter to either look around the small home or to adventure out into the farmlands for alone time, Darcy grimaces slightly as Laura goes to check on the injury Pietro had given to Clint the first time they met; surprisingly, nothing was there. She feels Pietro shift, watching him slowly stand and almost shyly go over to the couple, she doesn't strain to hear what they say to each other but makes sure Pietro's body language doesn't shift away from the shy tense in his shoulders or the nervous wringing of his hands.

She knows he's apologising, he would this is Pietro she's looking at. He's the boy who has to act much older than he is, he's the kid who apologised to one of the other test subjects before she got carted off for experimentation -  _he_ apologised for things  _HYDRA_ were going to do to her - Pietro isn't always the bravado he puts himself up to be in front of strangers, clearly something about Clint's family has spurred his more genuine side (though he will forever be the snarky big brother) and Darcy realises that he must be missing Wanda desperately, they're never usually split up for this long and it's only a matter of time before he starts ripping his hair out with his anxiety. A small, almost invisible smile forms on Darcy's face as she watches Laura place a hand on his arm - which he absolutely does  _not_ lean into - and clearly say she doesn't blame him for anything, just to be careful about how old the person is the next time he tackles someone when speeding across a field.

Darcy decides that it's probably safe to leave Pietro with Clint, his family, Bruce and Natasha (she was right about her name), rising from her window seat to properly have a look around outside. She catches Thor's eyes first and he does not look like he's happy with whatever decision he has so clearly shared with Steve, she hugs her arms as she goes over to them.

"Darcy, do not be alarmed but I must make a quick departure to find some answers for a few things," he says it carefully and Darcy manages to muster a supportive smile, taking a small step back to give him space to take flight.

"Go for it, Thor, don't let Myeu-myeuh forget me."

He chuckles softly, giving a small wave before disappearing into the sky.

She turns her attention to Steve, having the full intent to start a conversation but he seems distracted by something so she leaves it and instead heads over to where the barn and a large gated off pasture are situated. She can't actually find the gate to the pasture and while it may be rude, she's curious, she hops the fence and perches on a tree stump; it takes a second for anything to happen but she's glad she waited. A small herd of horses appear from the part of the pasture that sits directly behind the house, she hasn't seen a horse in forever she almost forgot what one was; she slowly stands from the stump as one approaches her, she lets him breathe in her aura before he aims to headbutt/nuzzle her head, she giggles, catching his snout in her hands and petting him.

"Got a real skill for making friends, huh?"

Darcy whips around with a small gasp. Stark stands on the other side of the fence, leaning against it and watching her. One of the horses goes over to him and he gives it a jovial stroke - she's surprised, she hasn't expected to see any sort of softness from him. After what she did to Bruce (which she reminds herself to apologise for that), she would've thought Stark would avoid her or villainise her on the spot... but he seemed to be attempting friendliness.

"From what I can gather, you don't remember much, but - uh - got any memories of your folks?" He asks. He seems genuinely curious so she takes a few steps closer.

"I-I mean, I'm sure Strucker told me other things while he was figuring out what info to feed me but... from what I can gather from the intel he told me I have - had maybe - a mom... I don't know if she's still alive... Strucker always wanted me to believe she was b-" she pauses, realising she's doing that thing where she rambles because she's nervous, she coughs, "as far as a dad and siblings... Strucker never gave me any names but apparently, he knew more than I had before... stuff... because he told me my dad ran off like he had with a previous wife and somewhere out there I have a half brother who went missing in like, the 80's - none of that ever triggered anything like basic memories from reference to my mom had... so I imagine before Strucker I didn't know much about my dad or this supposed half-brother."

"No shit," Stark hums, seemingly entranced by her stutters and pauses, "if all your folks are gone - no offence - then that's something I can relate to. Yeah my folks were killed by Bucky back when he worked with HYDRA... yeah that didn't go too well when Wonder Boy told me about it, understandably I was pissed but we all talked it out like adults - though I'm not going to lie, Pepper had a hand in that."

"Who's Pepper?" She asks, real curiosity poking through the odd small talk.

"My-ah, girlfriend? Colleague? Something like that - we don't really do labels until marriage in my family," he's rambling but it feels normal, like Stark does this a lot; getting side tracked from his original motive. "Anyway I'm getting distracted. I didn't want to just come over here and try and act like you don't freak me out a little; I sure as hell know  _I_ freak  _you_ out, Sparkles, I know I scare the living crap outta Sonic over there he's just got his whole anger facade up like I've got my arrogance - not that that's unwarranted. Conversation with a guy who's name is all over the bombs people still use to this day is weird, I talk to myself all the time and I was nearly killed by my own weapons before I became Iron Man-"

"Talk about self destruction."

Tony snorts, offering her a small smile, "funny, Sparkles." He digs into his pocket and tosses her an orange tube, "for the panic attacks. Technically I'm not supposed to give out medication but I don't think you exactly want to go to a General Hospital when you technically don't exist anymore. That probably won't help with the nightmares but... you know, if you ever need to talk and all that bullcrap.  Wonder Boy and his war buddy are probably up for the PTSD side of things, I'm sure they'd be willing to lend an ear. But hey, tell me more about the time you tased Thor at some point would ya?"

She watches him turn, prepared to let him leave before she calls out to him, "hey Tony... what are you gonna do about Pietro?.. and Wanda when we find her."

He turns back to her, "well I know I've gotta work slow with Sonic - ironically - he's clearly a bucket full of trauma wrapped in a blanket of anger and he isn't going to like me that quickly." He begins to walk away before calling over his shoulder, "I hear he's a big nerd though, maybe he'll like my suits."

* * *

Darcy's lying on top of a hay stack, one leg propped up while the other dangles off the side; she can feel the hay in her hair but by this point can't really care. Clint's farm is calm and serene, the only thing close to this back at the HYDRA base was when they had a greenhouse installed because some new guy got through the testing and had an affinity towards flora and fauna - if she remembers correctly his name was probably something ironic like Ignacio. She remembers Pietro having a bit of a crush (she says a bit, it was ginormous), the pair of them would always get caught up in conversation and Darcy and Wanda would always sneak away and leave them to it, they kissed... once; it was probably why Pietro had to watch him get shot for a bullshit treason excuse. The greenhouse was destroyed and that's when Pietro ran off for the first and only time, it's where the fear of dogs came from... all because he liked a guy that had said they should escape one time when they'd all gotten drunk for the twins' birthday.

"Hey there stranger!"

Darcy hides a smile, pushing herself to lean on her elbows and look down at the man who'd called her. Steve stands there, out of his Cap getup and into a blue shirt and jeans, he's holding two steaming mugs of something dark.

"Heard you and Tony patched things up and you're on speaking terms now."

She sits up completely now, one leg folded beneath her as she looks down at the super soldiers, "you hoping for something similar?"

Steve shrugs with a quirky smile, lifting up the two mugs, "I brought cocoa?"

She giggles, shifting over and taking the mugs from Steve's hands so he can jump up and sit next to her, taking one of the drink when he was situated.

"I know it's a little late but I've found cocoa is a good thing after nightmares - Buck makes it better but I-ah, hope it's good."

She takes a sip, careful of how hot it was and hummed in delight, "sweet." She pauses, swinging her leg before piping up again, "I never got to thank you... for the thing."

Steve jolts slightly, clearly not expecting her to say that, "hey, no, there's no need to thank me I woulda done it for anyone. I mean, I was really hoping I wasn't too harsh or tough cause you know you're small - I'm not saying you're not tough! - and I was worried that with you lashing out you were gonna hurt someone - or yourself, that was the priority! You'd been shifting the whole time anyway, I think Buck and Pietro knew what was goin on and then Bruce went to make sure you were okay and bam! you-you threw this orb at his shoulder and it clearly had a lot of force behind it and then I just worked on instinct I guess... it was the fastest way to stop your mind from focussing on anything other than people talking ya know? If you were moving too much that would distract you so. And then Nat thought it was just some kind of scheme to get us all taken out when Pietro yelled at you but Buck and I had seen your kinda reaction before. I-I knew I wasn't getting through to you and with Nat keeping your closest friend away he had no way to talk to you bar yelling and-and I figured that would've made you worse so-uh Buck reacted and put his skills to use - I'm sure nat knew what you guys were saying but I guess she felt safer Bucky calming you than Pietro... so- uh- yeah." 

Darcy smiles, tilting her head to look at him, "you from Brooklyn?"

"How-uh, how'd you know?"

She points at her mouth, "the accent. Comes out when you're nervous." She looks back out towards the farmland, "I don't remember where I came from - at all - but I think,  _I think_ I had a friend from Brooklyn, someone I met online probably."

Steve shrugs, a small smile on his lips, "s'a nice place, a lot weirder than in the 40s but I'll show y'around sometime."

* * *

"You know, I think it's more effective sparring with a person rather than a thing that looks like that game where you pull the sticks out of a tube and try to not lose all the balls," Darcy says, sauntering into the barn for some shade and finding Bucky; he'd changed like Steve, now hanging out in a white tank top and black sweatpants.

"That a challenge, Tink?" He asks, breathing heavily and turning to face her.

"It might be if you don't tell me where the nickname came from? - does everyone on this team like nicknames?"

"Pretty much - Tony and me mostly though. And your-" he waves a hand around himself, "stuff looks like fairy dust, Tinkerbelle's the only fairy I know so it seemed fitting. Now about that challenge..?"

Now it's her turn to flap about like a flightless duckling, "I don't  _really_ fight... I mean I send out spirits and stuff but that's a lot of stalling and shielding because a lot of the ones I call for don't really dig the whole fighting scene."

"All the more reason to train you in case of emergencies. I'd get Nat in here but she's busy flirting with Bruce."

Wow, she really shouldn't have mentioned wanting a fight. She spends a second looking at his expectant face and outstretched arms before sighing and shedding her sweater, leaving her in her jeans and a grey t-shirt; Bucky takes a few minutes to explain and show a few basic stances (that should would need to ingrain into her muscle memory if nothing else) before letting her have a try. He's impressed by a some of her knowledge - she mentions that just because she doesn't fight doesn't mean she doesn't watch other people fight - but he does have to move her positions slightly himself, he makes sure to try and not block any of her blows with his metal arm after the first hit because  _holy shit_ that hurt.

"I don't have super strength! I only do that when I enhance myself on stress!" She yells, holding her left wrist and jumping on the spot.

"Sorry!"

She seems to be a lot better and kicking than punching, because of her weirdly natural flexibility that had come with the powers instead of the strength Pietro had gotten, she's able to kick quickly and effectively. When she lands her first hit she almost screams she's so happy, things go pretty well from there, yeah Bucky grabs her and trips her onto the floor more than once but she tries her tactic from when she escaped him on Klaue's boat and enhances a little around her ankle to knock him onto the ground with her.

"Gotchya," she grins.

"I didn't know you were such a cheater, Tink," he says, biting his tongue to stop a smile.

"I used my skills. Not cheating."

The two of them just sit there then, exchanging teasing remarks so naturally it was as if they'd known each other for ninety years. Bucky stands suddenly and Darcy turns to look at what caught his attention, Bruce stands at the front of the barn completely breathless even though the house wasn't too far away from the barn. What he says send Darcy sprinting back to the house immediately, Bucky calling after her but she hears him following just as quickly:

"Fury's here. He's grilling Pietro - the kid's close to panicking."

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the lovely comments it means a lot :)


	5. Chickadee

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nicholas Fury is less than kind to the boy related to the girl who screwed with his agents’ heads.  
> But he does shed some light on why Darcy was never found... or searched for.
> 
> Oh! And they find Ultron again!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> An actual monster chapter I hope you enjoy.  
> I love everyobody’s wonderful comments <3

Darcy makes it into the house to find Pietro literally cornered in the living room, blue sparks of friction bouncing off his body as his natural instinct is to speed as far away from the threat as possible but his cognitive mind runs through the possible punishment for such an act. This  _guy_ \- a simple looking dude with not even a clue as to the damage he's doing to Pietro's psyche right now - is yelling at this frightened kid,  _her_ best friend and brother, about where Wanda (or: _your magic sister_ as this stranger put it) is or could be because if they find Wanda they find Ultron. But even if Pietro knows where Wanda is, it isn't like he's going to give up that information to a man who looks hell-bent on strangling him at that moment.

"Hey! Who do you think you are? Get away from him!" 

She moves to growl at the guy but Clint catches her around the waist and mutters a quick, "don't do anything stupid" into her ear. The stranger whips around, one eye covered by an eyepatch and she thinks he's supposed to look intimidating but he's pissed her off by being less than accommodating for Ex-HYDRA experiments. Pietro, seeing a quick escape from the corner, speeds out into the hallway where Nat catches him and they talk a little in Russian; Darcy's too focused on the asshat in front of her to care what they're saying.

"Miss Lewis?" He sounds shocked, clearly, she's supposed to know him.

"Great! The asshole knows me, anyone else wanna jump out and yell out my friends for no goddamn reason?" She glares at this complete stranger and she can tell Clint's worried she's going to scratch him or something just to put some of that sparring to use but Clint's nice and she doesn't want to hurt him so she just lets him keep her held in place.

”What is wrong with her?” He asks, looking around at all of the other Avengers, “Miss Lewis I was under the impression that you were away in Europe.”

”Does it look like I’m in Europe!?” She practically screams back at him, “I don’t  even know who the  _hell_ you are so please do share how in god’s name you know who I am and where I’m ‘supposed’ to be.” In retrospect Darcy knows she should be taking in the information he’s feeding her a little more seriously, he’s just given her a clue as to what the hell happened but she’s still too pissed to digest it.

”Why did you think she was in Europe, Fury? We know Jane didn’t tell Thor anything, but what about you? Did she say anything about that to you?” Tony asks, seriously trying to get to the bottom of this new mystery.

”A few months ago Miss Foster, Professor Selvig and SHIELD received identical emails from Miss Lewis’ business email. It had said she was going to be travelling Europe to get away from all of SHIELD’s problems for a while and to visit a friend who’d been having health problems. When HR followed up on confirming this with Miss Foster we found she had the same email,” Fury explains.

Nat comes into the room then, leaving Pietro with Bruce in the hall and marching to stand next to Darcy and Clint.

”So you didn’t think to maybe extra check these things!? You just accepted that she’d whisked herself off to a non specified location in Europe  _without_ telling any of her closest friends and colleagues? This. Is. SHIELD! Everyone puts themselves in danger with this organisation, Darcy was an innocent bystander. An  _intern_! And a friend to an Avenger. I don’t care if a cleaner sends an out of character email SHIELD is supposed to protect the people involved and now look at what’s happened.”

Wow. Darcy has barely seen Nat show any emotion to her friends but the fact that SHIELD believed a weird email about her that set her off?

”From what I understand, Miss Romanoff, this organisation was dealing with a few more important details than an intern who sent an email herself saying where she was going. HR said her phone was pinging at an airport and I’m the Director, I don’t need to be involved with missing interns.” Fury responds, his agitation clearly growing.

”She’s not exactly missing anymore is she?” Tony exclaims, hand shooting out to gesture at Darcy. “I don’t give a shit if SHIELD was trying to find HYDRA or what! A member disappeared with no other warning but a late email and  _everyone_ disregarded it because what? She wasn’t as important as her boss? She wasn’t as well known as part of SHIELD?” Darcy doesn’t think she’s ever felt more people protective over her ever, she knows nothing about this email business (not that she would). “Because of everyone’s hierarchy of priorities and lack of care for the little guys, we let this girl go missing for months! She doesn’t remember  _anything_! We’re lucky she had even a sliver of a memory of Thor or who knows? She and the kid you were just screaming at could be out there with Ultron right now and we would be in a far more difficult situation. SHIELD let someone get kidnapped, probably tortured to the point of PTSD these kids have, and she was put through something none of us have any idea of because SHIELD trusted an email and didn’t give enough of a shit about it’s employees.”

”Hey, guys, lets all calm down a second and take this outside Clint’s family are trying to sleep and I think it would be good for Darcy and Pietro to eat something while the rest of us discuss what Fury came here for in the first place. We can bring up this  _major_ issue when the rest of the world isn’t at stake.” Ah Steve, always the voice of reason.

Bruce whistles from the hallways, it looked like he’d handed something squishy to Pietro for him to keep calm. “I think I’ll stay with these two while you guys talk. And just remember, at least we know the basics of how this was allowed to happen, like Steve said, we can do more research on Darcy’s issue after Ultron.”

So everyone, thankfully listening to the more-than-tired Dr Banner and the less-than-okay-with-all-this-bullshit Captain Rogers, leaves the quiet home and huddles near the hay stack Darcy had sat on with Steve merely hours ago. She watched them from the window for a few seconds before Pietro pulls her towards the kitchen - and subsequently the dining table which they both sat at. 

“So, you two have had an interesting couple days, huh?” Bruce asks, placing bowls of noodles in front of the two of them. “Us breaking into your ‘home’, practically breaking you out, almost getting employed by a homicidal android and now you’ve got Fury breathing down your necks.”

”Could be worse,” Pietro says, sounding nonchalant for the most part but the tiny edge to his voice shows how tired and stressed he probably is. “We never liked labs, was nice to get out though things have not been going as we had thought they would when we got out.”

Bruce sits between them on their lefts, a mug of coffee nursed in his hands as the pair of them eat something thats not processed gloop for the first time since they were put into that lab. Darcy’s sure Bruce notices their reactions to the food but he politely doesn’t say anything.

”What did you guys wanna do?” He asks instead

”Well,” Darcy says through her food, she pauses for a second to swallow and wipe her mouth before continuing, “we all wanted to go to college at one point - though I think I kinda already went there, I’ll have to ask Thor - but we realised pretty quickly that the Sokovian education probably wouldn’t be enough for Pietro and Wanda to get in and anything I learned that might have aided me in whatever major I decided upon has completely left my head.”

”I know Wanda wanted to be a teacher for a while, she hasn’t mentioned it in a long time I do not remember what she wanted to teach. I know I am not as smart as people like you but I am interested in the sciences even though most of the scientists at the lab were assholes who thought I was only into sports because I was fast.” Pietro grumbles the last part, Darcy is always thankful that the lab hadn’t ruined Pietro’s keen sense to learn.

Bruce hums, either he’s genuinely invested or a really good actor, though Darcy’s pretty positive it’s the former (and she hopes it is too). She had watched his reactions throughout their little sharing session and saw the slight pinches in his expression when Pietro talked about his (in his opinion) lack of smart and knowledge.

”Well hey, I’m sure when all of this blows over I can show you a few things, and if I can’t there are plenty of people who work for Tony who know a thing or two. Besides maybe your speed will help you learn things quicker.” That earned an amused snort from the exhausted Sokovian.

”Thank you. So much. For the food, it was probably the best thing I’ve tasted in... let’s say a while,” Pietro stands, nodding his appreciation, “I will crash in the window. And do not worry, I don’t thrash.”

Darcy watches him clamber into the window seat, he’s a little tall for it but Pietro always curls up when he sleeps anyway ~ he’s a cuddler. She turns back to Bruce who is watching him as well, though there is barely veiled concern there, like with the everything they seem to say or do.

”I never apologised,” she says, hoping to draw his attention away from Pietro, “for the - uh - shoulder orb attack thing.” She points lamely to the purple bruise, “didn’t think I could hit so hard with something I’d just learned how to do...”

”Hey, don’t worry about it, I don’t blame you I think I was a little too tired to feel it anyway and I’m still pretty beat. I get that you probably don’t want to, but it might be best if you got some sleep or at least rested for a while. With Fury here it can only mean we’re probably moving out tomorrow.”

Darcy knows he’s trying to help, it’s not his fault she basically has a resigned phobia of sleeping. Pietro’s lucky he doesn’t really move when he sleeps, he yelled once after a nightmare of what happened to Ignacio, but that was the only time - she thinks he’d probably be worse off if something were to happen to her or Wanda (God forbid anything ever happen to the both of them) - his nightmares of his worst fears always get a little vivid and he’s usually a little shakey in the morning but running a couple laps fixes that for him. Wanda’s lucky she has the ability to put up a mental block in her mind, she doesn’t open herself up to nightmares unless she feels particularly bad about herself that day.

”Hey Darcy..?” Crap, she got side tracked in her brain.

”What? Huh? Oh right yeah sleep. I’ll take the couch good night!” She scuttles away from the table, throwing a hasty thanks for the food over her shoulder before removing her combat boots and regretting the fact that she abandoned her sweater (and only source of warmth) back at the barn, she also feels super bad for making Bucky ditch his stuff - he had a really cool looking leather jacket mixed in with his after training clothes.

She closes her eyes, steadying her breathing and trying to clear her mind so that she doesn’t think too much about the things her sick mind could possibly conjure up. You know that whole: it takes about 12 minutes on average for a human being to fall asleep thing? Darcy Lewis says fuck you to that because the only twelve minutes that are always taken into consideration is the twelve minutes between the births of Pietro and Wanda - as a joke (that Wanda has very much warmed up to), Pietro would always get to do things twelve minutes earlier than Wanda when it was their birthday. See? This is why she can never sleep, too many tangents of tangents running off in her head.

She suppresses a groan as the rest of the Avengers re-enter the house, they’re relatively loud until Bruce shushes them and presumably points to the two balls of curled up mutants invading the window and the sofa. The team take to having much lower voices, moving past her to probably congregate in the kitchen with Bruce. She lets the murmuring of the Avengers lull her to sleep.

* * *

Darcy wakes with a start, staring at the coffee table with a gaping mouth but she doesn’t know why, for once she cannot for the life of her remember the dream she had and she isn’t sure if that’s a good thing or an indication that her memory loss is getting worse.

She sits up, a weight falling from her torso to her legs. She looks down, suppressing a smile as she picks up the leather jacket. She looks to her left, Bucky softly snoring as he’s sat up against the armchair; Steve is asleep with him too, leaning up against Bucky’s side and Darcy let’s out a small ‘aww’ before draping the jacket over Bucky’s legs.

She gets up quietly, noticing that the only people asleep in the living room are her, Pietro, Bucky and Steve so she assumes that the others are probably sharing in the spare rooms dotted about the house.

She goes into the kitchen, eyes being drawn to the table and the several sheets of paper scattered around. Everyone’s names are scrawled on each sheet in multiple different styles so clearly everyone has attempted to have their say in... what? How they were going to be split today? The different lines connecting people clearly mean something, though it seems that there had been a unanimous decision to keep Pietro with her and Bucky with Steve. Though at one point someone had suggested sticking Bucky with her and Nat of all people with Pietro which looks like it had been the only option anybody thought of if they want to keep the surrogate siblings separated. 

A small whimper catches her attention. She looks up, eyes drawn to the gate that splits the kitchen from the back utility room. Clint’s dog Lucky, the one that had initially freaked Pietro out, is sat there staring at her with literal puppy-dog eyes. Darcy’s lip quirks upwards, she goes over to the gate, throwing an arm over to scratch Lucky behind the ear which earns her what she assumes is the dog equivalent of a purr.

A metal scratching noise breaks her attention away from Lucky. Darcy turns slowly, a cold metal hand pushing her against the wall next to the fridge by her throat; her breaths become fast as she stares at the red eyes of one of Ultron’s mini-me’s. Lucky looks like she wants to bark but she’s clearly too scared to, whimpering and tucking her tail between her legs.

”Betrayal confirmed. Reporting-“

Darcy panics, hand shooting out, an enhancement glittering around it, and rips the core from the android. The bot drops and she prays it never got its message through, there’s a small scratch on her neck from the android’s sharp mits and her hand is dangerously bleeding from it’s choppy insides. She drops the core, uninjured hand slowly coming to hover in front of her mouth, chest heaving and Lucky finally starting to bark viciously.

Pietro shoots into a sitting position, clearly wanting to dash over to her but with Lucky being as dangerous looking as she is Darcy knows he can’t risk it. Bucky and Steve are up as if they’d been called in for battle and Darcy feels bad that she could have been causing  _them_ flashbacks too. There aren’t any noises upstairs yet so she can only hope that the ruckus hasn’t alerted anyone else.

Bucky and Steve dash over quickly, Bucky shooing Lucky out the back once he opens the door and that allows Pietro to speed over and take her back to the window seat while the other two move all the pieces of the shattered core and main body of the mini Ultron together before Steve grabs the first aid kit hidden behind the spices and they both make it back over to her and Pietro within minutes.

”What happened?” Pietro asks, panic clear in his voice as he looks back at the destroyed robot.

”I-I don’t - it just came in - it was saying something about betrayal and I think Ultron knows what we’ve been doing,” she breathes in deeply, panicked tears streaming down her cheeks. “Wanda might be in danger... I-I don’t know how he found us it could have been my stone’s energy reading b-but we need to be able to make sure Wanda’s safe and that Ultron doesn’t suspect her.”

Pietro nods in clear agreement, speeding through the living room to grab her sweater so she can hopefully stop shivering. Bucky helps her put it on, making sure the blood is cleaned from her hand before pulling the sleeve over it. Steve gets to work with looking at what needs to be done, and determines the deeper cuts that need stitches and the ones that can be simply dealt with by a bandage.

”This might hurt,” He soothes, and Darcy realises that either her high pain tolerance or the adrenaline has been keeping how much her hand hurts low.

Pietro keeps his job of soothing her, helping her breathe away her panic (though not quite anxiety attack level), rubbing circles over her knee with his thumb while mumbling some of their old funny stories in Russian since that’s where her brain defaults when in a panic despite her first language being English. Bucky and Steve stitch two cuts each and Steve takes on the bandaging job to make sure the metal of Bucky’s arm doesn’t irritate anything.

She slips off the seat gently, falling into Pietro’s protective hug while the super soldiers beside them stand up to go back to the kitchen and talk about what to do about the infiltrator. Her non-bandaged hand finds Pietro’s wrist, feeling his pulse against her fingers and exhaling soft giggles as Pietro’s stories begin to mix in English words and phrases; her mental state coming down to a calmer level.

* * *

To say that the others had been shocked is the understatement of Darcy’s memorable life. Clint had come down first, letting out a shocked squeak and dashing back upstairs to presumably warn the others and keep his family away from the situation. Nat had carefully interrogated Pietro and her in their mutual language in order to find out what exactly happened while the others came down and split between checking on Darcy and investigating the downed robot.

So the situation now is find Ultron because the team knows he’s already up to something, and the near-murder attempt on Darcy’s life has made that much worse.

Fury decides that he’s taking Bruce back to wherever he’s going, probably because of the Hulk’s attack on that city that people are still talking about. Tony wants to go to to this NEXUS Hub in Norway, while Clint is worried about a Dr Cho over in Korea: so the group is split.

”It might be safer to split you two,” Bruce says, trying to sound reassuring. “There’s the risk that Ultron will be where you guys go so there’s a probability that he might try to take you. If your split then if he gets one the other is still safe with us.”

”And whoever’s potentially captured can link up with this one’s sister,” Tony adds, pointing to Pietro who stands to her left, “and take things out from the inside again, there is a 100% chance that we will all group up again so there really isn’t any worry.”

Pietro hums lowly, “so, getting captured is part of the plan...?” 

“Well not exactly,” Nat shrugs.

So she and Pietro split up, Nat rubbing Pietro on the shoulder as they move into Tony’s group by the hallway. She gives him a small wave and smile before she watches him leave to board Fury’s jet with Tony, Nat and Bruce.

”We’ll meet you at the lab so don’t leave without notice!” Tony calls.

Darcy turns, running her fingers through her hair and pulling her sleeves over her hands to go and join Clint’s little battalion. Steve and Bucky do a good job of making her comfortable without Pietro and their group head out of the house to get onto the original jet and head to Korea.

~ x ~

The flight is a blur for the most part. She sits on the floor playing solitaire with a pack of cards Clint had for some reason. She’s forgotten what she’s doing at one point and Steve decides to teach her how to play blackjack (which he knows how to play? Darcy thinks Bucky showed him at some point). So card games are the way they spend their flight time - Darcy at one point calls upon Catarina for her to apologise in her own little way for tackling him when they first met.

Dr Cho’s lab building is probably the most high-tech looking thing Darcy has ever seen. They land on the roof as quietly as possible though they all know Ultron is well aware of their arrival. Clint turns the cloaking on the jet on so it disappears as their team steps foot onto the roof. They go through the door leading to the stairs, scurrying down to the floor the need and scanning their immediate zone to ensure their safety.

”Dr Cho’s lab is in the east part of this floor, it’s smarter for us if we each take different routes over there,” Clint says, “you all gonna be okay with that?” He then asks, looking pointedly at her.

Darcy exhales but nods assuredly, tucking her hair behind her ear and allows Clint to put a comm into her ear.

”This will let you hear us and allow us to hear you,” Steve explains, organising his own comm, “if you run into Ultron try not to say anything directly to us unless you’re in dire need of rescue or medical attention - that’s for either you or Miss Maximoff.”

”Okay,” Darcy says, nodding again and stretching her bandages hand gently. She does a couple of quick tests with her powers, making sure she isn’t limited to using one hand while in a potentially dangerous situation.

From the staircase there are two main halls; Clint and Darcy run down one while Bucky and Steve go down the other. She’s jogging next to Clint when a familiar wave of mental energy hits her and she stops, giving Clint a quiet go ahead before side stepping down a different hallway (admittedly going to wrong way).

Darcy slows down from jogging, almost creeping along the wall in order to follow the mental waves. Wanda must have felt her come onto the floor and Darcy manages to feel how freaked out she is which is more than a little worrying.

She finds her hiding in a wall indent between a potted tree and a vending machine. Wanda pounces on her when they make eye contact, hugging her around the neck as Darcy’s arms wrap around her torso. They squeeze each other and Wanda hides her face in Darcy’s shoulder.

“He’s a madman. He wants to take over the world,” she whimpers, clearly very shaken by the things she saw in Ultron’s head somehow.

”Hey, hey,” Darcy soothes, pulling back to hold her face between her hands, “you’re okay, we’re all going to take him out, everything will be fine.”

A growl of a chuckle sounds to her left and both girls gasp, Darcy pushing Wanda behind her as Ultron appears and blocks the way back down the hall Darcy had come from.

”My, my little Chikadee I wondered why my puppet stopped responding,” he says, gensturing down to her bandaged hand. “I thought more from you, yet those who hate Stark team up with him. I assume that I am now the common enemy.”

”You were always the enemy,” Darcy responds, hearing a quiet ‘shit’ from Bucky through the comm.

Ultron makes a disgruntled noise, hand going to where his heart would be if he had one (metaphorically and physically), “that hurts Miss Lewis. I thought you had more faith in me, I am the only access to your past you have right now.”

She freezes, Wanda gripping her arm to keep her grounded, “you’re lying.” She tries to sound firm, but obviously anything regarding that is going to get to her. “And even if you weren’t I would never go with you purely for informtion.”

”Well little Chikadee, I don’t think I want to give you a choice.” He then gestures behind her.

She turns, and looks at Wanda in disbelief. Wanda looks at her apologetically, “this is to protect you.” Then a pulse of energy goes through her head and she passes out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Support me!   
> https://www.ko-fi.com/xlionheartx


	6. Almost Lost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The battle begins.  
> Then it ends in bloodshed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another monster chapter because we’re wrapping up Age of Ultron and moving on to original storylines with canon-divergent plot when we hit the Accords

Darcy moans, her body protesting the fact that she’s woken up. 

“Hey, Darce, hey,” a familiar voice calls. She opens her eyes slowly shooting upwards as she catches sight of Nat sat in front of where she had been lying.

”Where’s Wanda?” She asks, bandaged hand going to hold her pounding head.

”What? She’s not here..?” Natasha responds, confusion clear in her voice. She seems far more beat up than Darcy is.

”Bitch.” The word slips out before she can control herself, she’s somewhat happy her comm isn’t on her because if Pietro could hear her he’d be a little irritated (though the sibling betrayal is a little much).

”How the hell did he get you? I just got caught chasing him down with everyone else but you were gone by then. Bucky didn’t have much time to explain but he said you talked to Ultron.”

Darcy groans again, leaning back on one arm, “when we got to Dr Cho’s lab, Clint and I split from Steve and Bucky. When we got further onto the floor I felt the waves of mental energy Wanda was sending out directly to me so she knew I was there. I followed it, of course I did she’s practically my sister, and she looked super shaken up by something she’d seen in Ultron’s new consciousness or something,” she explains, “but then she turns around and knocks me out because it’ll ‘keep me safe’ but now she’s completely abandoned me with a psychopathic robot! I’m lucky you’re even here!”

”Wow,” Nat breathes in disbelief, crossing her legs to face her properly, “well, lucky  for us I sent a message to Clint via Morse code,” she’s openly proud of herself and Darcy giggles, “so we should get out of this soon and I promise you I will let you get one good punch in as payback for handing you over to our current mortal enemy.”

Darcy gives a theatric bow while sat down, making her... friend? Smile “I kindly thank you.” She slouches forward then, rubbing her face with both hands but hissing slightly as her hand suddenly stung.

”We should really get those changed when we get out,” Nat says, gently pulling the dirtied bandages off and looking at the stitched and scabbed hand. “I think it’s safer to keep this off for now,” she then whispers, a playful wink flashing Darcy’s way before tossing the rags behind some of the crates in their cell.

”Probably,” Darcy nods, a rueful smile taking over her genuine one, “how long do you think we’ll be down here? It’s giving me serious flashbacks to Strucker.”

”Don’t think about it too much,” Natasha responds, leaning forward rub her shoulder, “the team’ll be here soon and in the mean time, I can show you a thing or two about picking locks, I think you’ll know how to get out of this place if we escape the cell first.”

The two of them stand, Darcy shamelessly bouncing on the balls of her feet as she waits for Natasha to brush herself off. They move over to the gate, and look around to make sure nobody who’s going to kill them is out there; Ultron is off planning his world domination somewhere and the only mini-me’s around are the ones being built. 

Nat pulls a bobby-pin from the back of her hair, “my suggestion: _always_ keep one of these bad boys hidden just above the base of your skull, in my experience no one ever checks the hair - they rarely check bras either but that can get a little uncomfortable.” Darcy crouches just as Nat does, looking closely as she instructs her on how the pick a lock and then gives her extra tips for the ones you can see, like the outer padlock on their cell.

It takes her a couple tries, but Darcy manages to pick the lock and pull it from their door. She squeaks in excitement, staying as quiet as she can and high fives Nat when they sneak out. 

The whole floor is pretty open so the only  hiding places are misplaced crates of the table with the mini-me’s being built. They crouch behind a large storage container as a security robot saunters by and Darcy takes this chance to try and deduce where on Earth they could be.

”The church,” she whispers, earning a confused look from Nat, “we’re under the church that sits in the middle of the Sokovian city Pietro and Wanda are from. I never visited the place until we got out but this is where we first met Ultron, I never realised it went down so deep.” She looks up, seeing two or three other levels of army building, “He first started making his army in the old lab... but clearly Wanda wasn’t very fond of that and I’d assume Ultron figured it’d be easier for his army to go straight into the city from the middle of it rather than several miles west.”

”D’you think he’d notice if we turned a few of his machines off?” Natasha asks, looking around at the construction mechanisms.

”I wouldn’t think so, from what I’ve seen he has a big enough army already and if he’s prepped for battle there’s no point in letting him make more soldiers.”

Nat smirks, “lets have a little fun then. Meet me top side?”

”It would be my pleasure.”

So they split up. Darcy runs along one of the walkways a floor above where she’d been before, catching the attention of as many bots as possible before skidding to a halt and throwing a very angry wolf pack at them. She focuses for a moment, forming an orb and rolling it a few feet in front of her before it bursts into a trio of robotics majors; they split up to shut down the machines beyond repair. She goes up another floor after pushing a couple of (probably not vital... probably) crates off a walkway, hearing whatever glass was inside shatter as it hits the bottom floor; she’s running along with her little wolf/robotics kids pack, when she spots a large tube running from the roof of the level to the floor of it. It’s full of vibranium. 

It takes her a second to figure out what to do but then one of her wolves finds a little door at the top of the tube, clearly a height only Ultron could reach. She gets a lift from two of her majors while the other rummages around the surrounding crates to find a bag that she swears Pietro stole on their lab escapades at the start of all this (that feels so long ago now even if it had been barely a week ago). It’s got a logo on it for some company under the name Osborn - Ultron had looked it up and apparently it was an expansion of something based in New York. Anyway, she opens the little hatch after some prying and sends small fish spirits into the tube to push the pieces of vibranium towards her.

Luckily, she can still run even with the full bag of vibranium, it’s a miracle the metal is one of the most lightweight ones  she’s ever read or heard about. She sends most of her spirits away as she finds the stairs to go into the main city, keeping half of the wolf pack out for basic protection. She prays Nat is already up there when she starts moving.

“Come to confess your sins?” A deep voice asks. Darcy covers her mouth to hold in a gasp, pressing herself against the wall of the staircase that will not get her caught and evaporating the remaining spirits so that they don’t give her away.

”I don’t know,” Darcy doesn’t think she’s ever felt this happy to hear Tony’s voice, “how much time you got?”

”More than you.”

”Have you been juicing? A little vibranium cocktail? You’re lookin... I don’t want to say puffy.”

”You’re stalling to protect the people.”

“Yes he goddamn is because that is motherfucking Tony Stark a man who cares a lot more than he lets on and you will let him stall for as long as he wants to.” She says it without thinking really, but she’s happy she did, Nat’s not up here so Darcy can only hope she either ran into one of the others or found another way out.

”My little Chickadee to what do I owe the pleasure of you escaping your cell to defend your friends’ tormentor?” Ultron asks, red eyes glaring at her, “and I can assume you have there one of my vibranium stashes? Would you kindly hand that over?”

”Uh, first of all don’t call her that it’s weird,” Tony pipes up, mask opening up to reveal his face, “second of all, thanks for the pep, Sparkles. And thirdly, she will not hand that bag over because you don’t deserve it.”

Something shakes the floor they’re standing on, Darcy catches herself on the wall so she doesn’t fall down the stairs behind her and she wishes she could punch the smug look on Ultron’s face.

“What is this? What did you do!?” Tony exclaims, eyes glaring at his creation in shock.

“This is how you end, Stark,” Ultron chuckles, “this is peace in my time.” He raises his arms and calls his army forward, the thousands of mini-me’s invading the city with still hundreds of citizens to evacuate.

Darcy covers her head as a squadron flies up the staircase right next to her. She locks eyes with Tony and he tilts his head in a signal for her to go _now_ ; she decides she is going to help with whatever everyone else is doing, probably trying to find other citizens. She  sidesteps away from the doorway before sprinting out of the side of the church to vault over the construction fence that seems to withstand more than half the buildings in the city.

She wishes she could know where everyone else is and what they’re doing with all the survivors because she has no idea where she’s supposed to send anyone. She skids to a stop next to an archway into a market street, she sees a group of maybe ten families of two to five people each. She exhales sharply, making eyes contact with one of the mothers at the front of the group, she looks terrified as does the toddler she’s holding.

The mother asks what’s happening and Darcy is so lucky she speaks Russian, she’s probably also pretty lucky she’s still wearing civilian clothes, it makes her look like another survivor which makes her more approachable (even though she looks like shit). She explains about the current threat, the fact that the city may or may not be floating, telling them not to worry and to then not freak out at her next little stunt. She focuses her energy in finding someone who would be fast enough to find one of her friends and come back before too many enemies came to the area, in a flash there was a runner standing dutifully in front of her, glittering in contrast to the dust.

”I need you to find on of the team got it? Pietro, Bucky, Steve, anyone just get the information as to where I need to take these survivors.” The runner nods and sprints into the debris.

Darcy keeps her little group contained underneath the archway and pulls Catarina and half the wolf pack to guard her two open sides. She can see the wonder in the children’s eyes at her powers while some of the parents look wary (she can’t blame them). A whole squadron of Ultron’s troops come down on them, Catarina and the pack rip apart a good amount of them and Darcy enhances her feet and hands as she fights the ones that get through, kicking off heads and ripping out cores. She’s going to need medical attention when this is over but that doesn’t matter while there are innocents around.

The runner comes back mid fight and that calms her slightly because someone is close by, she and her spirits finish the squadron off before they take their guard posts back and the runner comes over to her, something in his hand.

”Barton says they’re gathering everyone at the West Point of the city’s edge. A SHIELD Helicarrier is on its way with boats for evacuation so we need to get any and all survivors we find over there so that there aren’t any stragglers,” he explains, “he also said to give you this.” He opens his hand to show a replacement comm for the one she’d lost.

Darcy smiles, taking the device and putting it in the way Clint had instructed back at the lab, “okay, I need you to take some of the wolves and get these survivors to the evac-zone, send a pull if you need more help and the rest of us will come by.” The runner nods, four of the wolves working their way to surround the group as the runner takes the lead, heading out of the arch to go through the  market street.

”Darcy!” Pietro’s voice comes through the comm and Darcy smiles as she runs, Catarina and the remaining wolves following around her.

”Hey, Pietro,” she replies, “is Wanda on this line, I’m pissed and she knows why.”

She makes it into a cramped residential street, half the houses already reduced to rubble while others luckily look completely evacuated. A few straggling bots catch her eye and she sends Catarina forward to take care of them.

”Yes, Darcy, I am here,” Wanda speaks up, sounding a little sheepish (for good reason) around all of the others’ calls and orders through the line. “Listen, for now I will say sorry but we can fully converse later.”

”Agreed,” everyone else on the line said in complete unison.

Catarina bounds back over to her with wires tangled all around her from her free-for-all. Darcy continues through the street carefully, she sees it through a beak in the houses but she is right at one edge of the city, rocks crumbling and the backs of houses falling back to the earth. There’s a high-pitched wail from behind a large hostel that’s still intact; Darcy tries not to panic, breathing in and shimmying through the thin ally between buildings. 

Like the other structure’s on the street, the back of this building is gone too, half of what would have been a reception completely gone from the city’s unexpected lift off. She hears the wail again and her eyes lock onto a wooden pillar that has fallen from holding the ceiling up. She gasps, jumping into the crumbling building and sprinting over to the pillar: underneath is a girl, probably no older than thirteen, she’s whimpering, the pillar having crushed her legs and will cut off her air flow if it shifts anymore from the position is in.

”Hey, hey, you speak English?” She asks softly, making eye contact with the girl. Her hair is short and blonde, eyes a brilliant but frightened blue. She nods as best she can and Darcy sighs. “Okay, I’m gonna get you out of here, this will hurt because the pressure is gone but you have to trust me, I’ll carry you to the evacuation point and you can get fixed up.”

The girl nods again, “y-your hands,” She wheezes, coughing as she breathes in the dust. 

Darcy’s hands aren’t even worth freaking out over, there’s a layer of fresh and dried blood covering every inch of them, she’s probably sprained at least one of her ankles if not broken the other. “I’m alright,” she says instead.

She dispels the current spirits with her, the ones running with the family group can disappear on their own if they want to but Darcy has a feeling they’ll probably go looking for other survivors as well. She wiggles her hands under the pillar, enhancing them as best she can but she can feel she’s getting weak from doing everything so quickly (and the blood loss). Grunting, she lifts the pillar and the girl pulls herself onto safe ground so she drops it, cracking the floor.

”Alright, you have a name?”

”Sarah.”

”Sarah, right, I’m Darcy. You ready to get out of here? If we stop don’t freak out and if I put you down don’t try and find me because I will come back to you okay.”

Sarah nods, holding in soft cries as Darcy lifts her onto her hip, holding her legs as gently as possible, “are you with the Avengers?”

”I would say so,” Darcy responds, making sure she has a good enough grip before heading over to a shattered window at the front of the hostel.

She creates a rather large orb, throwing it forward to create a big enough hole that won’t get Sarah stabbed by glass - Darcy tries not to wince when she cuts the back of her thigh. They’re back on the residential street and Darcy starts heading back the way the market street is. A force lands behind her and she spins around, ready for a fight, only to cry in relief as Thor jogs over.

”Darcy, are you okay?” He asks, hand coming to tilt her face to check the cut she’s completely forgotten about by this point, “and this young fighter?”

”This is Sarah, she got caught by a pillar but I don’t think she has any relatives nearby. I’m not fast enough to get her to the life boats and find over survivors,” she explains, worry clear in her voice.

”Let me do it,” another familiar voice rings, Pietro speeds up beside her with his proud little smirk, “I can get her there and be back here real quick, then we can get back to the church and stop the waves from coming at Mr Stark.”

”You gonna be okay with that, Sarah?” Darcy asks, tilting her head to look at the blonde. She responds with a quiet yes and Pietro takes her carefully before dashing off.

Darcy runs her bloodied hands through her tangled hair and grunts in frustration, “god if we had just taken Ultron out when I had that feeling at the start none of this would have happened.”

”Darcy, none of this is your fault,” Thor says, he really means it, placing a hand on her shoulder and squeezing, “Tony should have been more careful when creating intelligent life and the rest of us should have stopped him at our party. It’s everyone’s fault.”

Pietro’s back before she can respond, he picks her up without mentioning how best up she looks and then they speed off with Thor flying above them. They make it back at the same time as relatively everyone else, Nat and Bruce are missing but they’re not super fast or clearly very close. Everyone has somewhat gathered in a quiet (for the moment) zone, giving a chance for people to take breathers and check on others; Pietro is leaning against the wall attempting to catch his breath, he’s close to running on fumes with the last thing he ate being barely a third of what all his HYDRA reports said he should eat.

She’s not particularly any better, her powers require her a lot of mental energy and mental energy means she needs a lot of physical energy; she and Wanda don’t have to eat as much as Pietro does but they would probably go through at least half a buffet each. 

“Jesus, Tink, you look like to fell into a bloodbath.” She turns around, offering a half-hearted smile to a concerned Bucky.

”I’m okay, you can check over me later if you really want to make sure.”

”What’s the drill?” Natasha asks, finally appearing with the rest of the team.

”This is the drill.” Tony points to the vibranium core (which reminds Darcy of the fact she’s been running around and kicking robot ass with a bag of that stuff) “If Ultron gets his hands on the core, we lose.”

Ultron appears then, leering over them as they surround the core on all sides, Pietro’s to her left but he won’t be for long and Nat’s on her right.

”Is that the best you can do!?” Thor taunts, Darcy wants to smack her forehead but she doesn’t particularly feel like having more blood on her face.

In response to Thor’s admittedly stupid question, Ultron raises his arms to call upon dozens of his minions. Steve groans and punches Thor in the shoulder before everyone starts brawling. Darcy feels the wind whip around her as Pietro speeds around destroying the boys with pure force alone; she doesn’t call upon anybody to help because she doesn’t think she can anymore, the pack that we’re helping other survivors dispelled before this fight and the exhaustion is going to hit her like a truck later. Instead, she enhances her hands and feet like she had before and caught like she had when those families were around, she grabs one of the bots’ cores, not pulling it out but instead getting a good grip and throwing it to crash into about three other minions.

Ultron pipes up when most of his army is beat, “you know, with the benefit of hindsight-“ he’s cut off by a roar and Bruce - or Hulk at the moment - comes barrelling into the church backhanding Ultron away into the distance with another cry of anger. The robots begin to retreat, their leader as good as dead.

”They’ll try to leave the city,” Thor says in realisation, Darcy watches the bots and agrees that’s where they’re going.

Everyone falls into action, Tony calling on his friend to help stop the bots while this freaky red guy Darcy has yet to meet helps out. Steve and Bucky head off to find stragglers and Wanda is going to stay to protect the core until everyone is off the floating rock. She heads off a little earlier than Pietro, letting him have a moment alone with Wanda; she sprints back to the market street in case anyone is left there. She doesn’t find any people but she does find a small dog who happily follows her back to the evac boats.

She gets to the opening where the huge Helicarrier is, hearing gun shots she presses herself against the wall to stop herself from getting hit. 

Her heart drops.

She can hear Wanda scream from the church, seeing waves of red shoot out in the distance. Darcy looks out into the clearing and cries out too, the dog by her leg yipping in confusion.

Then she sees it. The silver butterfly that represents Pietro’s soul; eveyone’s is coloured differently, her’s is golden and Wanda’s is red. She sprints forward, skidding into a fall as she slams the butterfly back into his chest.

He coughs out a breath, eyes droopy but he grins at her. “You are a miracle.”

Tears stream down her dirty cheeks as she chokes on a laugh. 

He’s alive. She saved him. He’s alive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, I said bloodshed not death (besides if you read the tags you’d know he’d be fine)
> 
> IMPORTANT NOTICE: I am going to be on holiday until the 21st (UK time), because of that you probably won’t get an update until after then. AND with me running into original territory, it’s going to take me a little longer to be able to fit every other event around it so that will also make updates a little slower, I hope you’re patient with me but fear not I love this story and everyone’s feedback on it so my muse is as alive as ever.


	7. Blood, Sweat and Tears

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pietro’s alive.  
> Wanda’s okay.  
> Darcy’s surviving.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m back! My holiday was fun I loved reading all the little comments I got before and while I was away.  
> I hope you enjoy this chapter! <3

Darcy stands beside where Pietro lies in the device Dr Cho said would heal the rest of his wounds (though they’ll still scar). Her fingers stretch every so often, keeping the glittering of her powers alive so that the silver butterfly doesn’t slip out and leave her brother for dead again. She’s probably broken some cosmic law, but if the world didn’t want him saving why would it have let her see the butterfly?

Tony had taken the bag of vibranium she’d had before she went into the lab with Pietro. The dog that had followed her found its rightful owners but she couldn’t stick around for a thank you without risking Pietro’s safety. She doesn’t know where Wanda is, she assumes her sister is recuperating after Pietro was ripped from her and brought back in the span of five minutes; it can’t have done her link to him any good.

”Five minutes to go before he’s up and about again,” Cho says, though it hardly registers with Darcy (the only other person in the room) as her fingers stretch again, eyes not leaving the blood splotches on Pietro’s running sweater.

As far as she’s aware Bruce is gone, his soul is far away amongst the stars, getting further and further until it mixes with the others millions of miles from where she is; but it’s brighter, it is because she knows what his soul feels like, what it looks like. Her fingers stretch again.

The red guy who Thor apparently helped to make is named Vision if she hears the mumbles of Dr Cho correctly, Darcy’s not the only one attached to a stone anymore; he’s the reason Wanda got to the Helicarrier, she thanks him for that. Her fingers bunch together, nails digging into her raw palm.

Clint’s family are on board - including their dog - since their home had been compromised. Darcy is pretty sure they plan to go back though, Tony just wants to make a few extra things for their security, so, for now, they’re with Clint and staying wherever the rest of them will be until those security measures can be installed.

She hasn’t washed or changed. She’s still practically red all over, her clothes are quite torn; she’s torn, raw, shattering.

The door slides open just as Cho’s timer goes off. Wanda walks in, hair wet and in a change of clothes consisting of a scarlet long-sleeved shirt and black leggings, comfortable clothes for someone to take a break in. To calm down and try not to think about the fact that your brother almost died. Wanda has been doing what Darcy needs to, but refuses to do.

Her nails still dig deep crescent cuts into the already bloodied palm, no one will notice, it’s a nervous tick anyway. Her ears still haven’t started focussing on much other than Pietro’s breathing and the - now absent - fluttering of a wounded soul trying to escape to Nowhere. She can let go now; she does. The shimmer dispels and Pietro’s still okay when it does; he’s fine. _He’s fine_.

Darcy’s eyes gloss over Pietro one more time before she looks to Wanda, the girl giving her a reassuring smile and a gentle shove to go and sort herself out. She leaves the lab and realises she isn’t really sure where it is she’s supposed to be going... so she wanders.

The Helicarrier is a lot more winding that one would expect, of course, it’s a SHIELD thing so that might be why there are dead ends with windows and doors that lead to dark stairwells. She finds a long corridor after a while though, doors spread out on either side with makeshift labels on them with codenames and actual names underneath.

_Iron Man - Tony Stark. Hawkeye - Clint Barton. Black Widow - Natasha Romanoff_

And so on with everyone’s names (Thor’s is his name and then underneath it reads _the ~~mighty~~ god of thunder_ in probably purposefully bad handwriting).She finds that Steve and Bucky’s ( _Captain America_ and _The Winter Soldier_ ) rooms are across from hers and the twins’; even the three of them have been given codenames: _Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver_ and _The Golden Ghost_ (Darcy has no idea why she gets a fancy ‘The’ like Bucky). 

Her brain is still moving a million miles a minute and she doesn’t even have the comfort of focussing on calling a spirit to calm her down, her system is so broken down and exhausted that she really can’t do much except feel and think everything she’s always repressed. She’s only been free for a week so what’s happening to her shouldn’t scare her as much as it does, she’s being reminded of everything that’s ever happened back at the HYDRA lab; they did this to her constantly, so she would relive everything she ever went through while under Strucker’s command, so she wouldn’t fight back as hard next time, so they’d have another chance at maybe finding the key to getting their stone back to recreate the experiment.

She goes into her room quickly, trying not to slam the door as the emotions finally hit her like a freight train; they always do, she’s always hidden away in her room when it happens. Openly sobbing while curled up bloody and bruised on her bed is not a foreign concept to her, the difference is all the emotions she’s feeling: she’s not just been through training, she’s just been through battle, almost lost part of her family, she’s been living and bonding with warriors like a fairytale but everything’s crumbling and she feels like she’s just been dreaming something HYDRA’s conjured up to break her some more.

She isn’t a loud crier, she’s only loud when she has a nightmare, but she does still have her comm in and she isn’t sure who else does; Wanda doesn’t, she’s changed and wouldn’t bother putting something like that back in when if she wants someone she can just steer them in her direction. Pietro does but he’s still out and if the others do they’re either not saying anything or they have some kind of mute feature she doesn’t know about.

She hears the door open quietly, she knows it’s Thor because of the noise Mjolnir makes when he sets her down on the floor (yes his hammer is absolutely a girl). He doesn’t say anything and she appreciates that. He’s a lot better at reading people than he was when they first met. He moves forward to crouch in front of where she sits on her bed, she can see his blurry figure through her tears and without even needing to see his expression she knows he probably looks anguished or upset; she doesn’t think he’s seen her cry like this before if at all.

She’d hug him if she isn’t so disgusting, he’s not in his armour anymore so she doesn’t want to force him to change twice, let alone have to deal with how bad she smells. His hand moves to wipe away her tears, holding her face and giving her a soft smile which she returns as best she can. He stands, holding out his hands to help her to her still weak feet, she lets him lead her to a door, opening it to reveal a bathroom.

“Will you be alright?” He asks quietly, letting go of her to shuffle through the closet to their left and gently thrust a pile of clothes and towels at her.

She nods and tries to give him another reassuring smile before she closes and locks the door; placing the pile of fabric on top of the small sink counter, she turns to the shower. It takes her at least five minutes to figure out what any of the handles and buttons mean and it then takes her a further seven minutes to get the temperature how she wants it, the hot water on her hand feels strange, any of the showers she ever had with HYDRA were always ice cold to the point Wanda got sick from them once. She shakes the memory from her head, eyes catching her reflection and almost recoiling, god Bucky was right, she does look like she's fallen into a bloodbath.

Memories flash behind her eyes, images of Pietro in the same state after he'd run away from his lover's dead body. Those dogs did a number on him, almost maimed him beyond repair had Stucker not gotten them to stop, most of his injuries healed normally thanks to his enhanced abilities, but the one on his side still bugs him, like when he saw Lucky for the first time. She had seen his soul then too, it was preparing to fly away if those mutts carried on, that was the first time Darcy truly felt her heart stop, Pietro's nearly died once before but she would have been there to do the same thing for him as she had done on that battlefield; she just doesn't know if she would have her brother with her right now if it wasn't for Strucker calling off the hounds, that's the only thing she'll ever owe that man for.

She squeezes her eyes shut, digging the heels of her hands into them and letting out a tired whine. She peels her sweater off first, cringing as the article drops heavily to the immaculate tiles and oozing blood that is all her own and other survivors'. Her T-shirt catches on something hidden in her skin and carefully pulls it off to see the small shards of glass and metal infecting a jagged cut running diagonally from the bottom of her sternum to her left hip. She genuinely has no idea where that came from when neither her shirt or her sweater had tears in them. Her only thought was that Ultron or one of his minions had done it while she was out and being moved to the church which was... above all a little creepy.

She steps into the steam a moment later, hands stinging when she shoves them under the water. The liquid quickly runs red when she fully steps under the spray, she scrubs at her skin to get it all off thought this does nothing to help the pain in her hands and wrists; shards from her cut fall into the drain but she doesn't know quite how long she's had it so it might already be infected who knows. With the blood washed off she looks a little better, her skin is a little pink, her hair still has tangles and her injuries don’t look or feel any better, but she’s not red all over and and her hair will get a bit more floof to it when it’s dry.

She twists her hair into one of the towels in a way that always baffles Pietro, wrapping the other around her body before stepping out of the shower. She sits on the floor wrapped in her towel for a good ten minutes, curled up its warmth  and ignoring the pile of clothes that she’ll probably have to toss to save her from the memories associated with them.

She sighs, gripping the counter to pull herself to her feet. She dries herself off, pulling on the clothes graciously provided by the other Avengers (though mostly Nat and Laura). The jeans are slightly baggy around her bony waist but they fit comfortably and she’s able to stretch and bend her joints, she searches through a cupboard to find bandages to wrap her torso cut before she tucks the plain T-shirt into the jeans and curls into the green plaid shirt she knows Clint brought from his own collection.

She takes her hair from the towel and carefully hand dries it before dropping both towels in a pile next to her old clothes. She stares at herself in the mirror again, scrunching up her hair as she scrutinises herself. The scratch on her neck from a couple days ago has scabbed over, a few bruises have bloomed along the right side of her jaw and her lips are chapped and cracked in the corners. Her hands are covered in scratches and deep cuts all scabbed over though some definitely in need of stitches at some point. She knows she’s going to have to tell someone about the torso cut soon in case it is infected but she wants to put it off right now with the more pressing issues being Pietro and her exhaustion.

She leaves the two piles of fabric on the bathroom floor so she can clean it up when she’s in a better state of mind. Her socked feet are warm and feel much better when out of her boots, the carpet in of her main room is soft when she steps out of the bathroom. 

Thor isn’t there when she exits, she doesn’t expect him to be, he has other people to check on too. What she doesn’t expect is the two super soldiers sat on the floor at the foot of her bed reading a book together.

”Wha-“ she lets out a confused mewl, instinctively pulling the sleeves of her plaid shirt over her hands to try and hide the damage.

The pair of them look up, Steve pushing himself to stand first, “you look better.”

”Um - thanks -“ she isn’t quite sure what to say, she tucks one side of her drying hair behind her ear.

Bucky stands too, moving to stand beside Steve, “you did good, I dunno how many people have talked to you yet but... saving Pietro, that was _amazing_.” Steve seems to agree, nodding along with his partner.

”I guess,” she shrugs, looking at the floor and kicking it gently, “I feel like I played god - like I always do,” she mumbles it, but obviously they hear, it’s like you’re not allowed to be sad and sulky with the two war heroes around.

”Hey, you can’t help you powers,” Steve’s voice is firm but still comforting. “They were given to you in a situation out of your control and just because you feel it necessary to save your family from leaving you, that is not playing god. That is being incredibly human and just taking advantage of the skills you know you have.”

”On a side note, the plaid looks good on you,” Bucky adds.

She snorts, edges of her mouth lifting upwards in a tiny smile. Wiping her eyes with her sleeve-covered hand - and jeez how has she not run out of tears yet - and shuffling forward to accept the little arm rub Steve gives her.

”I’m assuming you haven’t crashed yet?” Bucky asks, folding his arms and staring at her tired eyes and slouched body.

”I have to wait for Pietro-“

”Dr Cho says she’s making sure he sleeps for a little while longer, he’s been using his powers practically on steam and she wants him to rest so he has enough strength to eat,” Steve explains.

”Oh - well I guess that’s a good idea... even without the injury he was crashing before we’d even grouped back up with Tony at the church.”

Bucky hums, “exactly, from what I can assume, Pietro in there needs to eat about as much as me and Steve, especially if he’s running around. But from how fast he loses steam I can assume you guys don’t deal with food much, which only makes me wonder how much you’re supposed to have and how little you actually had.”

She shrinks a little, he’s not trying to be rough, she knows that, but it’s difficult not to try and protect yourself when someone is pretty much hitting the nail on the head with his guess. She curls her hands around her body, hugging herself and lowering her gaze again.

”Buck,” she hears Steve say quietly before he’s gently tipping her head back up, “Thor had to go and see Tony and Vision about a few things and he wanted to make sure you got the rest that you need - he’s worried, so he sent us in here to make sure you’d be okay.”

”Cause you know how to deal with me.”

”Because we know what keeps you calm,” both men argue.

She closes her eyes and sighs, yawning involuntarily and pushing hair from her face.

”I really want you to get checked over because I can see already how fucked your hands are, but I won’t make you go anywhere until you’ve slept and seen Pietro again, okay?” Bucky says, sidestepping to let her glide past him to her bed.

”Okay,” she mumbles, dropping face first into the comfy sheets. She hears the two of them chuckle quietly as she curls up in the middle of the actual cloud she’s resting on, arms stretching out to hug one of the extra pillows under her head.

The super soldiers go back to their book at the foot of her bed. Her exhaustion finally takes over and she falls into her dreams.


	8. Recovering

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clint’s family are grateful for Pietro’s risky actions.  
> Wanda starts to distance herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ooooo look at me doing a chapter in Pietro’s POV, something that will be few and far between but enjoy it anyhow :D
> 
> If you care about where I’ve been that’ll be in the notes at the end <3

_Seeing that body, the man he could have loved, crumpled in a disregarded state broke him. Watching the soldier who shot him merrily saunter back to_ high five  _his friends._

_Wanda and Darcy are behind him, his sister - who he loves but can’t help feeling a little distant from because she can block out things he and Darcy can’t - tries to reach forward and take his arm but he dashes before she can touch him. He hears Darcy call his name, her squeaky panic disappearing with the wind as he kicks up the wall of the outer courtyard to throw himself over to leave into the forest._

_He knows he just made the biggest mistake when he reaches a quiet creek miles away from the lab. He’s just_ left,  _run away, when he gets scolded for trying to even leave his room at night. He’s just abandoned his family, his_ sisters _(no matter the blood relation), he can’t even process how much he hates himself right now. He left his girls to the devil’s hands and who knows what’s happening to them now._

_He makes it back to the forest before he stops himself with his thoughts again. Would the girls really want him to come back? They might never want to see him again after he just abandoned them. And if they weren't mad at him, would they want him to stay away for his own safety? They all know what the HYDRA men are capable of._

_The howls and barks of the hellhounds are upon him in an instant, he isn’t sure what’s happening at first until his mind catches up. The genetically enhanced wolves HYDRA have been designing finally put into practice on_ him _. His vocal chords rip a scream from his throat as they tear through his clothes and flesh like butter; it’s agonising, a dog latches onto his side and sits there like it’s eating him._

_His mind is foggy by the time he hears Strucker calling off the beasts. His half-lidded eyes can spot the blurry figures of Wanda and Darcy stood next to the Doctor. Darcy’s crying, she’s trying to be quiet but he thinks she probably felt him dying until this point; Wanda seems calm, a placating mask over her face as her arms wrap around Darcy and her eyes avoid her brothers’._

_It’s at this point he passes out from blood loss, and for a good while, he thinks he’s dead._

* * *

Pietro’s eyes open quickly, inhaling sharply but forcing himself to exhale as slowly as possible. He hasn’t dreamed of that day in a while, a lot of the time his nightmares were of events he never remembers but they feel like they happened. It’s why he hardly moves, the dreams don’t hit him as strongly when he doesn’t remember the fabricated events they’re trying to convince him of.

He feels like he’s been out for a while. The last thing he remembers is jolting awake when Darcy put his soul back, he had known she was freaked out but he tried to make her feel better by praising her even if going from dead to alive in a matter of seconds messed with his psyche a little. He’s in some sort of lab on his own now, which makes him feel less than okay, but he’s resting on some kind of bed; the comfiest he’s felt in forever.

His body doesn’t ache or hurt like he thought it would when he passed out earlier. He says earlier but in reality, he actually has no idea how long he's been out. How long does someone stay unconscious when they're healing from being brought back from the dead? 

He stares at the ceiling for a moment longer than he feels he needs to before he pushes himself into a sitting position. He jumps when his stomach growls loudly, the sound and feeling completely alien to him; his stomach feels like it's grown sizes since he joined the Avengers which is weird because he's had a single, slightly-larger-than-normal portion of food since he's joined them. He breathes in the sterilised air and holds in a wince as it stings the back of his throat. Throwing the paper-thin blanket to the side, he twists off the bed and hops off. His knees almost buckle and he catches himself on the edge of the bed, the door slides open with a noise that makes him shrink back against the furniture.

”You really shouldn't be getting up until you've eaten more than your scarily-low weight in food,” Natasha saunters in, pushing along a cart of meals he's never seen before (then again, most of the HYDRA food he had was unidentifiable goop which they claimed was good enough for him).

Unlike him - who's still sweaty, bloody, and in trashed clothes - Nat has completely cleaned up from the battle. Something with her seems a little off-kilter but he doesn't want to ask for fear she’d make use of the things that give her the assassin title. While it looks like she's mainly in her own clothes, he recognises a striped jacket that he's positive belongs to Clint (though knowing how close everyone on the team is, he's not quite surprised that they share clothes - then again Nat could just be stealing them).

He tries to offer her one of his usual smirks but he can tell by the look on her face that it translates more as a nervous smile. She abandons the cart and presses her hand to her ear to mumble something before carefully walking over to him as if he were going to lash out if she moved any quicker.

”C’mere, Tony has a room set up for you between your sisters’ that I can take you to,” she holds out a hand and smiles at him warmly when he takes it, throwing his arm over her shoulder to keep him upright just as Clint walks through the door.

”C’mon then, I need you to eat something and clean up before I let my family come and ravage you with thanks.” Pietro watches him take the cart and pull it out of the room backwards, leading the way down winding corridors while Nat half drags him along for the ride. 

He hopes he’ll get to fully talk to Clint at some point while he's awake to make sure he isn't too scarred by his death and resurrection. He also _really_ needs to see Wanda and Darcy but he’ll ask the two SHIELD agents about them when they're satisfied enough that he won't collapse when left alone.

True to their word, his room is neatly squished between Wanda and Darcy’s, an odd title above his nameplate stands out to him: _Quicksilver._ Nat explains that it was Tony’s idea to give him and his sisters ’superhero names’ or something mostly for the public (but they always found some personal use and meaning in them sooner or later).

The room is smaller than the lab but bigger than any room he's ever had a claim to before. There's another bed in here (he doesn't even want to vocalise his astonishment at there being beds _everywhere_ ), big and looking like an actual cloud in his eyes - he's almost positive his girls probably thought the same thing. Nat drags him towards the door on the far left of the room, opening it up to reveal a pristine bathroom that isn’t as scarily white as the lab, but white enough for everything to look new; he kind of feels bad being the one to defile it.

Nat helps him inside and sets him on the edge of the bathtub, leaning next to him to turn the taps to start filling it up; it's a good thing they’re not expecting him to be able to stand in order to shower. She leaves when the water temperature is up to her standards, he watches her go over to Clint as he listens to the water pool together, the room heating up nicely (he also realises in this moment that he’s about to have a _warm bath_ , he almost giggles with anticipation).

Clint and Nat exchange a few words as Clint manoeuvres the cart of food to the foot of the bed. They smile at each other and Nat goes over to sit on top of a shoe trunk positioned by his window (which only looks out upon blue sky and grey clouds threatening rain). Clint comes into the bathroom after a second of rummaging around in the shelves next to the bathroom; he sets the pile of clothes and towels on the counter with the sinks and moves over to him to lean next to him and turn the water off.

"Nat's gonna go on a bit of a runaround to find everyone else," Clint says when the room is quiet, "but for your own peace of mind, Darcy's next door with Steve and Bucky, I'm gonna be honest when I say nobody's seen Wanda since she went on a walk with Vision. I'm going to stay with you for a bit - my family also wants to come by but we can do that when you're ready to."

He nods, voice not willing itself to work, and Clint smiles at him before leaving the room. Pietro gets undressed as fast as his body will allow him to, the clothes forming a muddy, bloody pile in front of the sink; he tries to ignore all of the little white scars that litter his torso as he slides into the warm water. At first, the temperature throws him off a little, but after a few minutes of just sitting there, the heat sinks into his skin and it feels so nice.

He stays in the water until it turns murky and lukewarm, and his muscles are less tense and stiff. His arms don't shake as badly as he expects them to when he lifts himself up to curl a large, fluffy towel around his body and ruffles his hair in a second one to dry it off.

The clothes he changes into are definitely a mix of Steve and Bucky's things; the black track pants are pretty loose around his legs and the socks he pulls on are coloured like Steve's Captain America costume, the white long-sleeved t-shirt is snug against his muscles but happily hides his messy torso, especially when pulling on the warm grey hoodie with a cartoonish set of wings on the front of it.

He pulls the plug on the drain and watches the water disappear before testing his slightly sore leg muscles out the exit the room.

"Hey, kid, how do ya feel?" Clint asks when Pietro looks over to him, peering out the window at the clouds floating by.

He coughs a little, gratefully accepting the bottle of water Clint offers him, and taking a large gulp of it before speaking, "still a little strange but much better, thank you."

"That's good then, how are you feeling about social interaction right about now?" 

Pietro shrugs, honestly not quite knowing whether he wants to sleep or see Clint's family, he knows he wants to meet with them but he just isn't quite sure how he wants to go about seeing them again. Does he just greet them as if he's known them for longer than he has? Does he be slightly cold? Human interaction is complicated, especially when you've been locked up with the same two people for months. 

"I can... probably handle Laura..?"

Clint smiles at him kindly, placing a hand on his shoulder and squeezing it affectionately before letting him collapse onto his bed as Laura is called down from Clint's room; apparently, Nat's watching the kids. It doesn't take very long for the woman to be knocking at the door, Pietro managing to stand just long enough to greet her. What he isn't expecting, is to be pulled into a tight hug; at first he isn't sure what to do with his arms (of course he's hugged people before, but he doesn't know Laura that well so it throws him off slightly), but eventually manages to settle them around her as she squeezes him tightly.

"Thank you so much," she murmurs into his ear, voice cracking with emotion, "what you've done has saved my family, I can never repay you for that."

"You don't have to repay me," he replies softly, "I did what was right and even if Darcy hadn't pulled me back, I would never expect anything of you."

Laura pulls back, wiping her eyes and looking up at him with her charming smile and motherly gaze, "oh my god, you are wonderful," she chuckles before turning to her husband who stands, smiling at them from the doorway, "Clint, we're adopting them, I've decided; all three of them."

Clint laughs, holding up his hands, "fine by me, welcome to the family, kid."

Pietro smiles with a small laugh, sheepishly running a hand through his hair, "I think you might have to fight Tony for Darcy."

The three of them share another small laugh before Laura's telling him to get some real rest (and not: you've-just-been-revived-so-we're-patching-you-up rest) and grabbing Clint's hand to pull him out of the room with gentle 'see you laters'. Pietro collapses back on the bed when the door closes, running his fingers along the duvet (at least he thinks that's what it is), and pulling it out from under him to curl around it; it's heavenly, and the warmth and cosiness lulls him into a more tender rest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry that it took me forever to write this. It’s probably because of the change in POV but it was so hard for me to keep writing more than two sentences during any given writing spree.
> 
> But I’ve also been gone because my computer has broken and writing on my phone is a process esp when my new school term is about to start and I’m having to fill out online forms and whatnot. Hopefully I’ll get a new computer soon.  
> As well as that (gets super serious here), one of my childhood friends has passed away so my mum and her family are all kind of sorting out when a funeral will be - I don’t mean to be a downer, I just know sometimes people want the full reasons as to why writers have been gone so bare with me while I’m going through all of the new changes and whatnot.


	9. Welcome to Avengers Tower

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy and the twins arrive at their new home, a place of amazing technology and impeccable ways of freaking people out.  
> Plus - uh - Darcy's not feeling too well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for taking a while to update again~   
> My computer broke again after I got it fixed so here’s hoping she’ll come back again

_There's someone in front of her that she doesn't recognise, a room that doesn't look too dissimilar to the training one from the HYDRA base built up around them, in fact, she feels pretty detached from this memory - if she can even call it that. it's like she's floating above it all, sat on an invisible platform as this less experienced version of herself faces off against this other experiment(s?), honestly by this point she isn't sure, everything is surrounded in a weird red glow and little details keep changing and shifting like her opponent's face and the different training gear on the walls._

_Her attention shifts back to what she guesses is supposed to be a past her, clad in combat boots and a slightly too big jumpsuit with her necklace resting against the fabric rather than underneath it as she wears it now; the same outfit she's worn for every training session under HYDRA. Her hair keeps switching from being tied up in a ponytail, braided, or down and while the odd dream is so faded, she can't help but feel like it's real, three things happening at once but in real life probably having occurred within weeks of each other, as if she's forgotten three identical events within days of each other. The only thing that seems to be attempting to convince her none of this_  ever  _happened_ _is the weird whispers from the red wisps surrounding the entire set up._

_Her opponent attacks first, shooting forward a strange amalgamation of fire, ice, and earth like her brain can't decide what this person should be using. The past her responds a little slower than she probably would now, rushing out a half-formed mix of an archer, a scientist, and Catarina as she rolls away from the attack; observing her looks up to see Strucker and a few of the other scientists, appearances altering every few seconds as they write different notes as the battle(s?) continue._

_The changing bodies and spirits split for a second the experiment looks like three familiar people but at the same time three people who have never existed to her. The red wisps pulse and the whispers increase to a point where she hisses as her head throbs, the splits jumbling back together just in time for her to witness the three separate versions of herself throw their hands forward and yank back, three different coloured butterflies shooting into her necklace as the mixed up experiment drops to the ground. Dead._

* * *

Darcy wakes up breathless, sitting up quickly and leaning down one side of her bed to throw up the very small amount of anything left in her stomach; the pulsing in her head from her dream is still present though now it seems more like an awful migraine - maybe the dream happened because she's sick? 

Whatever it is, she just hates her body freaking out like this, the number of times she's gotten sick and just had to train or go through experiments has been enough to tell her that she  _cannot_ take any time off because it will break an entire system if she can't do everything Thor and the others need her to do. She feels the separate panels of Bucky's metal arm rubbing her back at the same time her senses allow her to feel Steve holding her hair back as she coughs up anything left in her system.

When she knows nothing else is going to escape her body, she turns away from the disgusting mess and curls her knees under herself to face the room's door rather than the window (which shows that its either the middle of the night or the very early morning), a large spike of pain running through her abdomen that she attempts to ignore. Both men beside her are silent for a moment, Bucky handing Darcy a glass of water which she takes gentle sips of while Steve lets her hair go to slip off the bed and get a good look at her face.

"You okay?" Steve asks softly, she nods in response but squeezes her eyes shut when a wave of dizziness passes through her.

"We'll take that as a no then," Bucky says, crossing his legs as he sits beside her. Without warning (probably to stop her from batting him away), he places his real hand against her forehead, only to pull back quickly, "jeez, Tink, you're burnin' up."

"I'm fine," she gulps, taking one deep breath and a final sip of water before pushing herself to stand next to Steve - who practically springs up in case she falters. "Really, it was just an aftereffect of a bad dream. I'm fine." She's far from fine but if she keeps saying it maybe it'll convince both of them as well as herself.

She can see Steve in her peripherals, eyes watching her with worry, "Darcy-"

"I'm fine."

The room feels a little too warm for her right now, so she grabs a pair of slip-on tennis shoes from the shoe rack next to the door and leaves before either man can stop her; luckily, they don't follow. She wanders like she had yesterday, mind replaying each of the segments of her dream but focussing a lot on the red wisps instead of watching her kill three people in the exact same way. 

Apparently, she has a knack for finding just the right room she needs to be in and makes it to a small communal kitchen area. There’s isn’t really a door, more of an arch, and she sits down at the table in the room, resting her face in her hands, at the same time Nat looks over from the coffee machine.

”Well don’t you look like shit,” the redhead says, “didn’t check that cut huh?”

”What’s it from?” She responds drowsily, running her hands down her face to drop them on the table and face her friend. She doesn’t bother freaking out someone knows about it, Nat was probably there when it happened and her brain’s a little more like mush than it should be right now anyway.

”Ultron tried to take the necklace but it protected itself somehow and he ended up doing that. He had a weird fascination with you but luckily he gave up when he did that to you,” Nat explains, sauntering over to place a mug of some warm drink (that Darcy can’t be bothered to worry what it is), down in front of her and placing another on the opposite side of the table where she then sits. “I was worried it would get infected but with everything that’s happened so far I didn’t want to stress you out with too many people worrying about _another_  injury since we still need to worry about your hands.”

Darcy takes a second to look at her hands, wrapped around the mug and looking rather dark with the number of cuts littering them. She sighs, lifting the mug and taking a gentle sip of the hot beverage; there's an odd, bitter and almost fizzy aspect of it that reminds her of all the weird pills Strucker and the scientists would hide in their drinks and food to see what was nullified by their powers and what worked fine. She can't imagine Nat tying anything like that so can only hope  _whatever_ Nat's added to this drink is supposed to help her in some way. 

"I've already got Bucky and Steve freaking out cause I woke up from another dream and promptly threw up, which I must say is a first, I have this awful migraine and I'm not going to lie, I  _almost_ passed out because it's  _so warm_ "

Nat hums, clearly not scrutinising her for hiding how sick she feels but at the same time gaining an air of a concerned mother hen - or spider, she supposes, "if Bruce were here I'd ask him to take a look at you and find the right antibiotics to help with the infection, but he's not so we might have to run down to the lab and I'll patch you up as best we can until we can get you checked at home," she reaches across the table to take one of Darcy's hands (the least battered one, she notes), "I promise that I'll keep this under wraps for now, I can convince Steve and Bucky that you were just freaking out over whatever you saw in your dream and you and I can help you get better on our own - hopefully your migraine and any pain from your cuts will dull a little with the painkillers I threw in your coffee - but swear to me, Darcy, swear to me that if you get any worse or I see you faltering more because you're not healing from this infection, that I can tell either Tony, Thor, Steve and Buck or the twins. Anyone."

"Okay," Darcy nods after a moment, squeezing Nat's hand as best she can, "I promise you can tell someone else if I get any worse, and I will tell you if I get any worse."

Natasha offers her a thankful smile before downing the rest of her coffee (whatever this coffee stuff is) and standing from the table, she waits there for a second and Darcy takes that as her cue that she's waiting for her. Darcy drinks the rest of her medicated coffee as fast as she can without feeling nauseous and then stands to follow Nat out of the room and towards the lab - or, you know, medical facility room because it sounds less terrifying - she  _really_ tries to ignore the machine that was used to help Pietro in favour of staring straight ahead where, surprisingly, Wanda sits at one of the computer desks in the room.

"I'll go grab a couple things and you two can have a talk," Nat whispers, rubbing her shoulder and leaving her in favour of rummaging through the cabinets.

She goes over to the desk, lifting herself onto the stool beside her sister; Wanda doesn't look up.

"You are not well," the girl says instead.

"Neither are you - mentally," Darcy responds.

Wanda looks over at her, eyes suggesting that there's more to Wanda's inner turmoil than just the facts that she handed Darcy over to a genocidal robot and that her twin died and came back to life; Darcy doesn't want to pry but the fact that there's more freaking her out is worrying.

"I know you're angry about what I did, you should be," Wanda mumbles, fingers tangling together to mess with the ring on her hand, "I was supposed to get Pietro too but he wasn't with you and he was already surrounded by everyone by the time I found him so I had to leave you to Ultron alone... I was going to have him take both of you so I could get you both out and we could  _leave_ ; forget all of this Avengers business and make our own lives, just the three of us."

Darcy offers a soft smile, reaching over to place a hand on Wanda's shoulder, "you're worried we're drifting apart... with Thor being the best link to my past I have and Pietro having had time to bond with everyone you're worried you're fitting in less with us and everyone else."

"It is not only that..." she trails off, clearly thinking about whether or not she wants to say what she was initially going to, "I've done things that I know people like Tony Stark will be able to find. What Strucker wrote in my report makes it seem like I did things out of malice... or hatred of the people I did them to and I'm terrified that our files will be found and that they'll see everything I've done."

"We've all done things we're not proud of," Darcy says, "my powers make it so simple for me to kill someone and while a few things are a little patchy, I'm sure Pietro and I have done things as bad as you think your actions have been. What you did was under HYDRA, you didn't do them by choice and I don't blame you. I don't think anyone would."

Wanda turns and hugs her then, tightly and with her face buried in her shoulder. Darcy isn't sure - her hearing is slightly muffled through the hug - but she  _swears_ she hears her sister utter the words:  _If only you knew._

* * *

The rest of the team finds Wanda, Nat and Darcy hanging out in Wanda's room later that morning (apparently they'd been searching for them for a good couple of hours), Darcy's feels far better now (though still a little lightheaded if she moves too fast and minor nausea if she eats or drinks too much in one go), the painkillers having worked a charm and kicking in again after the second dose of medicated coffee and Nat having cleaned and wrapped up all her wounds (including her hands). She and Wanda spring up when Pietro comes into the room - being the first to find them - squeezing him until he has to laugh breathlessly for them to let go of him; Clint hears the commotion in passing and everyone else seems to follow after that. Nat manages to pull Steve and Bucky aside to talk to them while Tony - breathless from running around for three or four hours - says good morning to the enhanced trio and informs them of a small drive they're going to have to take from the airport that the Helicarrier will land in, to 'The Tower' which is where all the Avengers stay. Apparently, there are enough spare rooms for them to be able to claim three next to each other while still being on the designated floor for all of the heroes. The room is relatively full with all of the Avengers inside of it, so the group decide to head to the bridge where they can check out the view properly and have the best chance at getting off the Helicarrier without too much fuss from whatever reporters are most likely going to be there.

Up in the bridge, the group encounter Nick Fury again, the sight of him putting Darcy a little on edge. Also in the room is Tony's friend Rhodey who's further down the bridge talking with Vision.

"I was wondering when you were all going to get your asses up here," he says without turning around, happily facing the window while everyone else takes seats on chairs around an ovular table.

"Good to see you again too, Fury," Tony responds sarcastically, rolling his chair back to throw his legs on the table.

Darcy folds one of her legs under her and lets the other stretch under the table hitting against opposing table legs to spin the chair back and forth at her own little pace. She watches Pietro, realising that these chairs turn, spin his seat around and sit on it backwards, arms folding on top of the back and resting his front against it too; Wanda sits like any normal person, crossing her legs and leaning against the back of the chair, watching everyone curiously. 

"You've made quite the mess, haven't you." It's a statement more than a question, the intimidating leader of SHIELD turning around to actually face the ragtag group of heroes, "built a killer robot, made a few new friends, destroyed an entire city and displaced thousands of people."

"And who exactly might you be?" Wanda asks shamelessly, leaning her head on her hand and looking over at the eye-patched man.

"I, Miss Maximoff, am the man stopping half of you from going to court with foreign officials," Fury responds, anger mostly flaring in the direction of Steve and Tony (because Darcy's pretty sure they're the leaders of this group).

"Yeah, alright Fury don't get mad at the kids," Tony says, he's interrupted for a second.

Pietro makes a minor, indignant huff, saying "we're 23 and 24," into his fist.

"As I said, don't get mad at the kids," Tony reiterates, "we're going to go back to the tower and if anyone slips through your grasp and demands anyone's head, I've got my lawyers who won't let anything happen."

Fury growls out a sigh of frustration, "your going to have the UN up your ass Tony," he says before finally dropping the subject, "Agent Hill called ahead and has had Pepper send down some cars for you to get back to the tower, there should be enough for you to fit Agent Barton's family and your new," he pauses, trying to find the right word that won't set anyone off, "teammates."

Tony claps his hands loudly, “perfect, now get me a computer so I can add the kids to FRIDAY’s acknowledging system.”

* * *

To take up a whole airport must be a bit of an inconvenience, Darcy doesn't remember much about airports or how she could have felt when an issue arose, but she can imagine that people aren't... happy with their arrival (though she's sure nobody's  _too_ angry by them bringing survivors of a disaster). Fury makes sure all of the refugees leave the helicarrier first, emergency services joining up with the medical teams aboard to help those injured and organise everyone in a way that will make it easier to transport them all someplace safe.

Tony takes the lead with the group, aiming to deal with the forefront of the press gathered around the sectioned off area while the others get to the cars Pepper sent. 

“Nobody says anything,” he orders, “main guys stand around new guys, don’t let people overwhelm them this is new and weird and you three are not freaking out on my watch. Especially with people like those reporters out there.”

Clint fans his face dramatically, sniffing as if he’s crying tears of joy and pulling Laura under his arm, “Tony has a heart.” Lila and Cooper giggle from next to him as Tony’s face drops into a comical glare.

”Can we go now?” Nat smirks, folding her arms and leaning her weight on one leg.

Everyone gathers into a little huddle, all of the main heroes decked out in their iconic suits; Clint’s family taken separately to look similar to refugees and keep them hidden as they had been before. Darcy grips Pietro and Wanda’s wrists tightly as they move behind the others; she can hear cries of _Mr Stark!_ and _Captain Rogers!_  as well as minimal yells for the others from the reporters. Tony waves at them passively, lights flashing at their left in a way that makes the twins tense up, she squeezes their wrists until they make it to the cars. 

It’s six people to a car so Darcy and the twins share with Tony, Steve and Bucky; their driver being a guy named Happy who seems to be friends with Tony (to some extent). Clint and his family, plus Nat all share and Thor and Vision decide they’ll just fly back to the tower - you know, since they can do that. Darcy sits in the middle seat facing the back of the car, Tony opposite her tapping away at his phone, and the twins either side staring in amazement out of the windows at the city passing by; she shifts in her seat as subtly as she can, folding her arms against her stomach to run her fingers along the bandage underneath her shirt and flannel. It's stinging again.

The trip feels weird, being in a moving vehicle feels weird, not to mention it jostles her a little _too_ much. She has to say though, the tower's definitely the most impressive thing she's seen, structure-wise, in a while; it's very metallic, but a strong, warm kind of metallic rather than the cold, cruel kind she got used to with HYDRA. Tony has all the cars park up in a hidden lot underneath the tower, once again avoiding and press that could be at the front of the tower, Thor and Vision touch down just as everyone climbs out of the cars.

Surprisingly, Tony lets Clint lead the group and his family into the tower, the large group _somehow_  cramming into one elevator to get up to the floor all of the Avengers stay on - Tony’s penthouse above them.

”Welcome back, lovely to see none of you dead,” a voice says from the ceiling.

Darcy and the twins stop in the entrance hallway while the other wander into the communal living room and kitchen. Wanda wraps her arms around Darcy’s arm the minute the voice speaks and Pietro’s glaring at the ceiling with sparks bouncing around his hands.

”Heya, FRIDAY,” Tony responds naturally, absentmindedly pointing Clint and his family in the direction Darcy assumes the rooms they’ll be staying in are. He turns back to their trio and raises his hands when seeing their probably pale faces, “woah, woah, chill out guys. That’s FRIDAY, the AI that runs this place, Sonic can stop conducting electricity now.”

Darcy nods a little slowly, eyes flicking to the ceiling and back to the remaining Avengers who are now all staring at them, “y-yeah, I think we got that. Just - you know - voices from speakers never meant good things. Old habits die hard, ha,” she tries to pass their mutual panic off as a joke as Wanda’s arms unwind from hers, but the others’ eyes just get an strange look in them that Darcy can’t quite translate.

Tony recovers first, probably noticing the trio getting slightly uncomfortable. He waves them into the communal room and then struts off down a hallway that they follow him down after getting waved off by the others.

”FRIDAY has a lot of features that you can ask her about when you want; your conversations will not be broadcast around the tower so don’t worry about lack of privacy with her. The only person she shares info with is me and that’s only when I either ask for it or something sets off a red flag to her. My old AI was JARVIS but he’s kinda occupying Vision now so she’s a replacement. A good one I must admit.”

”Thank you,” the system herself responds, “I know how fond of JARVIS you were.”

With most of their initial panic gone, Pietro definitely seems the most intrigued, Darcy thinks Tony notices from the small smirk that pulls at his lips. He continues to lead them down a hallway until there’s three doors; one at the end of the hall and two on either side. He doesn’t say anything but waves his hand in a gesture that makes them each pick a room.

Darcy gets the one at the end; her room at the lab was at the end of a hallway. The room itself is nothing like the tank she practically lived in with HYDRA, there’s no big observing windows, just a room almost double the size of the one she occupied on the Hellicarrier but similar in layout. She definitely feels that it needs a little more decorating, but the only thing she’s personalised in a while is her outfits for the past few days. She turns back, the twins having completely gone into their rooms and Tony’s standing in the middle of the hallway looking very proud of himself.

So this is where they’re living now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made a discord server for those of you who want to talk to me about this fic or any of my others <3
> 
> https://discord.gg/Becs2DG

**Author's Note:**

> So we're straight into Age of Ultron!
> 
> Darcy's time with Strucker will eventually be further elaborated on, as gruesome and cruel as it is.


End file.
